(Even though there's only one or two people from my school who are actually cool enough to have a blog [and none of them are in my year anyway!], I'm just doing this cause I feel like it...and just in case you wanted to know how the last year of high school was for me! It'll happen to you one day, that is if it hasn't happened already!)
I started high school last year, and coming from a homeschooling family, it was a massive change for me. Everything was so big, and everyone was so scary! To be honest, I never really enjoyed school at all that year. I'd wake up and think "Why on earth did I decide to go to school? I hate that place so much!" I'm one of those naturally quiet guys, and I only knew one person in my year, and even then I didn't know them all that well. Still, somehow I managed to get through that year, hanging around with my brother and his mates, or just walking around hoping that someone would say hi and at least the loneliness would go away for a time while I said hi back. Not that anyone was unfriendly or anything: just that I suck at making friends and am not naturally outgoing or anything.
There was a few things I really enjoyed about 2010 though. One was hanging out with a group of Year 10s (11s now!) who I knew from Youth Group. They always made me feel welcome, said hi, and seemed to like listening to my attempts at playing guitar. :D It wasn't much or anything, but it made everything more bearable, knowing I could go there and be accepted.
The second thing was my tutor buddies! All the guys at M2 - you know who you are! - really helped me get through both years! At first I hated tutor but then I got a bit more confident and started talking more, and then found myself really enjoying it. Had some of the best chats of my life in there!
The third thing was my marks - it was awesome to be recognized for my work, as you didn't get much of that homeschooling. I found out I was much better at some subjects than I ever thought was possible! I think the comment someone said to me sums it up best "I didn't know homeschooling students were so smart!"
The last thing was the last day in 2010. I finally gathered enough courage to talk to a few people in my year group (even then I had to be invited to!) and then was the time when I started to think "Hmm, maybe they aren't so bad a bunch!"
Anyway, that was 2010. Because (in general) I had such a bad school year socially I decided right at the start of 2011 that this was the year everything was gonna change. I promised myself that I'd make some friends, and have the best year ever!
The school year started off with our Year 13 Leadership Camp. It was pretty epic, even though I was still a bit shy. I guess this was the first opportunity I got to really hang out with my year group. I was pushed outside my comfort zone a bit, but it was good.
After that, we got into some actual work. Found myself loving classes even more this year - especially my classics class, even if it was a small group, we had some good times in there! The work was harder, but with a bit of push and shove I managed to get into it. I also joined the First 11 soccer team and entered interhouse events which made up for some pretty great experiences too.
Anyway, I continued with my promise to make some friends, even managing to start discussions with some new people. Hanging out with everyone in the common room sort of helped too. I still remember how awesome that common room was at the start of term - a whole room to ourselves, with couches, promise of a pool table, and a makeshift ping pong table, where a TON of games were played - especially by Brandon!
So everything was going great! Life was all good, and I had found a couple of friends. Then everything started going downhill.
I won't go into details, but sufficent to say that there was a ton of problems happening in my life, and the fallout from this as well as the work load made me go a little bit stir-crazy for about two months in the middle of '11. Through this time, going to school was such a relief. All my friends, without even knowing it, really helped me through just by being there to talk to about random stuff (good distraction!) and just treating me like a normal person even though I felt like I was going insane under the pressure! So I'm really thankful for that.
After I emerged from that, through the grace of God, I found the year was coming to an end, and I really needed to decide what to do next year. Thankfully I had some amazing people including one of my teachers in 2010 help sort stuff out for me, and I managed to make this life-changing decision without to much trouble, even though it did take me forever to decide on my future career! But hey, its an important decision!
By this time, I'd totally forgot about the promise I'd made, until one day when I looked around and realized that I was friends with so many people! Even some people I never even thought I'd ever talk to! It was amazing to see how far I'd come.
The last term for me was so intense, trying to get everything done, but also spend time with my mates. A lot had changed by then, people had came and gone, the common room was not as cool anymore (in fact dead boring at lunch after the ping pong and couches got taken away!) but I found that overall it had been a great year. Sure there was "groups" as always, but still everyone was on good terms and once you got to know people you found that the "exclusitivity" wasn't actually all it seemed.
Last night was our leavers dinner and it was amazing! Such a defining moment in my life, and most probably for everyone else in the room too! Afterwards I went to a party, which, despite the usual shenanigans was actually really awesome! Had some good talks with people, and plenty of laughs. Even failing at driving up Hannah's really steep driveway at the end of the night (though it took me a few goes!) was absolutely hilerious.
Today was my last day at school EVER! I can truly say that I had an amazing year, and was so stoked to meet everyone in my year group, and make some friendships which will last for a long time. I'm really so glad that I decided to come to high school, cos despite the rocky start it was totally worth it! Huge thanks go to my family for supporting me and sending me to school in the first place! It's true to say I wouldn't, and couldn't have made it this far without you!
Also thanks to the friends who've been there for me since I started - Grace, for being the one person I knew in my year and really going to great lengths to help me fit in, Tommy, for being an awesome mate right from Day 1, and talking to me in tutor, and Brandon, for the competition at English (which I won at!) and ping pong/soccer (which you wasted me in!) and for all the random discussions we had. I can't go without saying thanks to the awesome mates I made this year - Courtney, who was my main competition in classics, and I always had epic as chats to, Sam, for being a good friend, Bongo, Lewis and Josh for just being good guys to hang out with, and Paul for being a great role model and McDonald House's best prefect ever!
So finally, thanks to my family, my mates, my teachers, and anyone who was awesome enough to believe in me, cos sometimes thats all you need. I can honestly say I'm going to miss it - and all of you - now that it's gone. Thank you all for a great year.
That's the speech I should have said last night.
Jordan
Ps So many people helped make school that much better for me that it would take me all night if I was to list them all! You know who you are - thanks for making it awesome, and sorry I can't mention you all.
I started high school last year, and coming from a homeschooling family, it was a massive change for me. Everything was so big, and everyone was so scary! To be honest, I never really enjoyed school at all that year. I'd wake up and think "Why on earth did I decide to go to school? I hate that place so much!" I'm one of those naturally quiet guys, and I only knew one person in my year, and even then I didn't know them all that well. Still, somehow I managed to get through that year, hanging around with my brother and his mates, or just walking around hoping that someone would say hi and at least the loneliness would go away for a time while I said hi back. Not that anyone was unfriendly or anything: just that I suck at making friends and am not naturally outgoing or anything.
There was a few things I really enjoyed about 2010 though. One was hanging out with a group of Year 10s (11s now!) who I knew from Youth Group. They always made me feel welcome, said hi, and seemed to like listening to my attempts at playing guitar. :D It wasn't much or anything, but it made everything more bearable, knowing I could go there and be accepted.
The second thing was my tutor buddies! All the guys at M2 - you know who you are! - really helped me get through both years! At first I hated tutor but then I got a bit more confident and started talking more, and then found myself really enjoying it. Had some of the best chats of my life in there!
The third thing was my marks - it was awesome to be recognized for my work, as you didn't get much of that homeschooling. I found out I was much better at some subjects than I ever thought was possible! I think the comment someone said to me sums it up best "I didn't know homeschooling students were so smart!"
The last thing was the last day in 2010. I finally gathered enough courage to talk to a few people in my year group (even then I had to be invited to!) and then was the time when I started to think "Hmm, maybe they aren't so bad a bunch!"
Anyway, that was 2010. Because (in general) I had such a bad school year socially I decided right at the start of 2011 that this was the year everything was gonna change. I promised myself that I'd make some friends, and have the best year ever!
The school year started off with our Year 13 Leadership Camp. It was pretty epic, even though I was still a bit shy. I guess this was the first opportunity I got to really hang out with my year group. I was pushed outside my comfort zone a bit, but it was good.
After that, we got into some actual work. Found myself loving classes even more this year - especially my classics class, even if it was a small group, we had some good times in there! The work was harder, but with a bit of push and shove I managed to get into it. I also joined the First 11 soccer team and entered interhouse events which made up for some pretty great experiences too.
Anyway, I continued with my promise to make some friends, even managing to start discussions with some new people. Hanging out with everyone in the common room sort of helped too. I still remember how awesome that common room was at the start of term - a whole room to ourselves, with couches, promise of a pool table, and a makeshift ping pong table, where a TON of games were played - especially by Brandon!
So everything was going great! Life was all good, and I had found a couple of friends. Then everything started going downhill.
I won't go into details, but sufficent to say that there was a ton of problems happening in my life, and the fallout from this as well as the work load made me go a little bit stir-crazy for about two months in the middle of '11. Through this time, going to school was such a relief. All my friends, without even knowing it, really helped me through just by being there to talk to about random stuff (good distraction!) and just treating me like a normal person even though I felt like I was going insane under the pressure! So I'm really thankful for that.
After I emerged from that, through the grace of God, I found the year was coming to an end, and I really needed to decide what to do next year. Thankfully I had some amazing people including one of my teachers in 2010 help sort stuff out for me, and I managed to make this life-changing decision without to much trouble, even though it did take me forever to decide on my future career! But hey, its an important decision!
By this time, I'd totally forgot about the promise I'd made, until one day when I looked around and realized that I was friends with so many people! Even some people I never even thought I'd ever talk to! It was amazing to see how far I'd come.
The last term for me was so intense, trying to get everything done, but also spend time with my mates. A lot had changed by then, people had came and gone, the common room was not as cool anymore (in fact dead boring at lunch after the ping pong and couches got taken away!) but I found that overall it had been a great year. Sure there was "groups" as always, but still everyone was on good terms and once you got to know people you found that the "exclusitivity" wasn't actually all it seemed.
Last night was our leavers dinner and it was amazing! Such a defining moment in my life, and most probably for everyone else in the room too! Afterwards I went to a party, which, despite the usual shenanigans was actually really awesome! Had some good talks with people, and plenty of laughs. Even failing at driving up Hannah's really steep driveway at the end of the night (though it took me a few goes!) was absolutely hilerious.
Today was my last day at school EVER! I can truly say that I had an amazing year, and was so stoked to meet everyone in my year group, and make some friendships which will last for a long time. I'm really so glad that I decided to come to high school, cos despite the rocky start it was totally worth it! Huge thanks go to my family for supporting me and sending me to school in the first place! It's true to say I wouldn't, and couldn't have made it this far without you!
Also thanks to the friends who've been there for me since I started - Grace, for being the one person I knew in my year and really going to great lengths to help me fit in, Tommy, for being an awesome mate right from Day 1, and talking to me in tutor, and Brandon, for the competition at English (which I won at!) and ping pong/soccer (which you wasted me in!) and for all the random discussions we had. I can't go without saying thanks to the awesome mates I made this year - Courtney, who was my main competition in classics, and I always had epic as chats to, Sam, for being a good friend, Bongo, Lewis and Josh for just being good guys to hang out with, and Paul for being a great role model and McDonald House's best prefect ever!
So finally, thanks to my family, my mates, my teachers, and anyone who was awesome enough to believe in me, cos sometimes thats all you need. I can honestly say I'm going to miss it - and all of you - now that it's gone. Thank you all for a great year.
That's the speech I should have said last night.
Jordan
Ps So many people helped make school that much better for me that it would take me all night if I was to list them all! You know who you are - thanks for making it awesome, and sorry I can't mention you all.
2 comments:
That is really epic :D
I already read this on Facebook but I thought I may as well leave a comment here!
This is a pretty awesome speech! And we definitely enjoyed having you come and play your guitar for us. You're really good!
Anyways, good luck with your future and all. Keep being awesome :)
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