Collective Experience

That was fun.

To the Class of 2024…

THE POWER OF OUR COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE IS NOT TO BE UNDERESTIMATED.

Let’s say that you and I started year 7 together. I still remember that first day with a strange clarity. We sat on the floor of the old hall, our shiny shoes on the shiny wood. We got handed a sheet of paper that had our email address on it. If you were there with me that day, we would have spent roughly 1200 days at school together. And what about those kids who I went to primary school with? Well, that number would look something like 2600 days. A special few of you I have known for even longer than that.

There is something to be said for spending day after day, week in week out, year after year together. We fell into rhythm and routine with each other, ebbed and flowed from class to class with the certainty of the tides. We mapped out our tracks across the school, and sat in our favourite seat in each of the classrooms. We learnt the sound of each other’s laughter, our quirks and sense of humour. We learnt each other’s secrets and hopes for the future, and we got so so comfortable with putting on the same white shirt every day. We are creatures of habit in a world of flux. I am reckoning with the fact that this familiarity is about to be flipped on its head.

You and I have been tested by many factors during our time at high school. I mean, we’ve seen it all. We’ve been thrown the usual assortment of disasters, from bushfires to floods to a global pandemic, (that one was actually…unprecedented). We’ve been through 4 year coordinators, 2 principals, and 1 extremely taxing hall construction. We still talk about the rival year 7 letters, F A I T H, as we try to establish that our class was indisputably the best (whatever that means). My point is, we have come a long way. We have grown up together. I have made a few really good friends here. There are some people that I regret I didn’t get to know as well. But we have all affected each other in ways that we may not even realise. Just ask Lochlan about the butterfly effect. And so, whether you were my best friend or someone I have only exchanged a handful of words with, I would like to thank you for being part of my life. For helping to shape the narrative thus far.

I am not trying to scare you when I say that we are down one chunk of this beautiful life.

         Where did all that time go? 

But we shouldn’t mourn our childhood at the expense of looking towards our future. It was time not wasted because we spent it together. You are the people who have defined this part of my life and I am eternally grateful for that. Whatever it is that we choose to do with the next chunk of our lives, we will always have this experience to build off, this place to call home. And in the future, when we think of our time at high school, I hope we think of each other and the memories that we made, together.

– A . Ryan