By now, you may know everything about me, but I feel that at this late stage of the year and with school ending for many shortly, it might be a good time to share some true stories with all of you. The 2 events that I will share are based on my experience at Jingili Primary School in Darwin, and at North Rockhampton High School. Each experience was 5 years apart, and was very different in nature.
It might also be a good time to point out that neither school was where I expected to graduate. Family dictated that moves from places where I had established myself were inevitable. Whilst it was sad to leave, I still think about the people that I shared these experiences with.
DATELINE: December 1996
I didn’t really know what to think that day. It was a day of excitement given that the end of school had arrived, however it was a sad time as I would be unlikely to see many, if any of the faces I came to know very well since I arrived in April ever again (as it turned out, I did very occasionally cross paths with people without any formalities). A few nights before I was dressed in a dinner suit, for a Grade 7 dinner at some Chinese restaurant in the complex of a casino, and my future was still up in the air. I remember talking to nearly everyone that night and I discovered that I was accepted. It was as if they had known me for 7 years rather than 7 months.
The last day was very interesting. My desk had already been cleaned out, and everything was in readiness to farewell the school and the classmates. I have 2 vivid memories of the last day in primary school. One was paying for pizzas that a group of us (there were 3 others whose names escape me) paid for in the morning. It was a good time for all, and not just because it was a pizza lunch. Unfortunately, I was interrupted halfway through a slice of ham and pineapple by a representative of the high school that I eventually attended for the balance of 1997.
The meeting was actually strange. There was myself, the class teacher Mr Usher (Hello if you are reading this, which I doubt), my mother, the representative and I think a deputy principal. They weren’t really asking any probing questions of me; that was thankfully left to the adults. What the representative wanted to see from me was indications that I was keen to go (which I was despite initial thoughts of going to another high school). I was satisfied with what I was offered, and 10 minutes later I was back eating pizza while watching Toy Story (to infinity..you know the rest).
The only real memento that I had of the class was a group photo shot in the middle of the last week. I remember I was keeling in the front row with 3 others, while the rest of the class was standing behind. It showed that we were immortalised forever as the class of 96. Regrettably, I misplaced the photo 4 years ago and I doubt if it will surface ever again, but hopefully I’ll be invited to a reunion when and if they ever organise one.
DATELINE: NOVEMBER 2001
Primary school is a lot different when compared to high school, particularly when it comes to the last week. Graduation Day is a big deal, shirt and bear signing and handshakes and hugs were the order of the day, and I shed a tear or 2, but more on that later.
The last week was just a bludge (or even a blur, I’m not so sure) for the first 3 days of the week. All that was done was an awful lot of sitting around doing nothing, wandering about the school, signing forms and leaving early. One day I left a little early just to buy a paper to see the photo of the class. I sat in the front row, and looked a little out of place considering the looks of a few others.
The Thursday was the last day where the students felt a tight bond within the school. There was speaker after speaker that ensured that insomniacs would have some relief, followed by the final day BBQ. After downing a couple of snags (Sausages to the uninformed) it was time to soak it all in. Take a final real look at the surrounds that was opened only a month earlier. Maybe sign a shirt or a bear if you were lucky. It was almost a sad time rather than a happy time. The shirt I wore went to the dump a short time later, having been torn before I went home.
Graduation day was a real shambles. The air conditioning wasn’t working to the full potential, which made life uncomfortable for everyone watching the ceremony. There were too many people coming in to watch proceedings, which could be attributed to the fact that the auditorium was too small to accommodate everyone. The solution was to put the students up onto the stage, which was worse given that we were now standing for 2 hours. By the end of the ceremony, I don’t think there would have been more than 10 out of over 150 paying any real attention to the speeches, and it was a relief to leave the stage.
After doing one of my last pamphlet runs before quitting within the next month. It was time to don the suit and tie for one last blast with the group at the racecourse. I managed to get into a few photos that in hindsight was a nice memory. Mind you, with so many people carrying digital or disposable cameras it would be a disappointment not to get into a photo. Even the community paper (which I was quoted as saying is good for kitty litter, toilet paper etc.) came out and immortalised the group on the front page for the next edition.
Apart from the feed and the tribute video, it wasn’t the best of nights, but then again it wasn’t the worst. It was just good to be around a group that had stuck close together for the years that I was privileged to be a part of. In fact, many people, including a future Gold Medallist at the Olympics decided to mix a bit of exercise with mateship by running a lap of the track (all 2000m of it). There were some tired bodies that slumped on seats, and that was my cue to exit. After farewelling a group of people on the way out, it’s fair to say that I was holding back a few tears as I walked away from my life of 4 years.
As a side note to that story, I later discovered that 3 other members of the class of 2001 were doing the same University Course as I was, and we shared each other’s company in class for 2-3 years. We acted as if we knew each other, but the relationship was funny. The 3 other members graduate early next year, unlike myself who get behind and will spend at least another year here with all of you at FFUK. Hopefully the 4 of us will ensure that there will be many other stories of end of year celebrations and goodbyes will be told for the future.
