The Last Word

By Alexis Owen | Posted: Sunday March 1, 2026

Many of you will know me, and for those who don’t, my name is Alexis, and I’m your Deputy Head Boy.

When I was trying to write this speech, I found myself continually resorting to ChatGPT. Though it may be more professional, to me it sounded hollow, cheesy, and most importantly, fake. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t my writing, my ideas, or anything like me, to be honest. After this, I decided I would write all of this AI free.

This led me to a topic I think we can all relate to, and that is simply being yourself and embracing who you truly are. I mean, when you think about it, do you even know who you truly are? I think our personalities are constantly changing as we grow and experience life, especially during this time we have together at Otago Boys’. With mates, teachers, the Rector, and the rest of the staff and school community, it all helps shape who we are, better than AI ever could.

For me, the things that have shaped my life have been sport, school, training, and having goals that I want to achieve. It’s these very things that I think make me who I am.

ChatGPT would now tell you that in a speech like this I should say that you need to have a goal in life, but you don’t. If it were up to me, I would say you should have a reason to wake up, but I understand some of you out there don’t. If this is you, I don’t think you should worry, as we’re only young, and finding a purpose while still growing as a man is very unlikely.

Instead, I think it’s more important to focus on being yourself and living the way you want to live. I think it’s important to do the things that you find joy and excitement in, even if they are a bit different from what everyone else does.

In the end, you’re not AI robots, you’re real people. You can have your own opinions, thoughts, and ideas. You can do what makes you happy, not what helps you fit in.

What I also think is very important is to respect others and the way they choose to live. I respect that. I respect the students of the school, all of you. I respect the staff, the teachers, the Rector, and everyone within my community.

So instead of getting AI to write me a speech, I’ve written this myself, and it’s about being real. It’s about respecting those who are real, no matter who they are or what they love. It’s about me respecting you guys. It’s about me respecting the staff. It’s about you guys respecting each other. When I think about it, it’s about all of us respecting everyone within our community, students, teachers, staff, the Rector, respecting one another for who we really are.

As Taylor Swift famously said, “We don’t need to share the same opinions as each other, but we need to be respectful.”