Tihei mauri ora

Ki te whai ao

Ki te ao mārama

E ngā mātāwaka, e ngā hau e whā

Nau mai, haere mai ki te kaupapa whakahirahira o te rā,

ko te rā tuku taonga mō ngā tuākana o te kura.

Nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai

Tēnā koutou katoa.

It is a genuine pleasure and a privilege for me to celebrate with you, our prize giving and graduation ceremony today, and to take this final opportunity to reflect upon the 2022 year which we have shared.

I add my welcome to you all – our parents and families, Board of Trustees members, special guests, Mrs Ann Bennett, representatives of the Monga whānau, and Mr and Mrs Tearle. Thank you for sharing this occasion today.

And to my colleagues, and to our students, I thank you all for your contribution to this occasion, the culmination of the successes and experiences of the 2022 year.

Today is a very special day. We meet to celebrate our year together. We meet as the family of the school, to recognise and congratulate our prize winners, and to farewell a group of uniquely special people – our 2022 Year 13 group - our graduates.

As we wish them well in their future lives, we also, today, meet to take this opportunity to thank them, for the very real and lasting contribution which they have made to our world.

We are reminded, on these occasions, that each of us has the right to feel proud of the truth, that each of us is part of the community who have, together, worked so hard, in so many ways, to achieve our dream of being even “better than before”.

There are so many people to thank for their part in our realisation of this dream, and I take this opportunity to express my personal gratitude to you all.

I thank you, the young men of the school, for your enthusiasm, your commitment and your service to our world. I thank you all for your kindness and care, to me, to the staff, and to each other. A special thank you must also be given to our Senior Prefects, so well led by our dedicated Head Boy.

Cayden has been very genuine in his leadership role. I have appreciated very much his warmth of spirit, his passion for supporting us all in our goal of making our world a better place, and his sincerity in giving so much of himself to the family of the school.

It has been a very real privilege and pleasure to share 2022 with such a wonderful young man. Cayden embodies the spirit of the school, and I thank him for his care and support.

I also offer my thanks to our Senior Prefects, the Prefects, Lions, and everyone who has contributed this year, in all of our many leadership and service roles.

I thank you, our families, and the staff and senior management team. We appreciate, too, the very real contribution of our Board of Trustees, in particular our wonderful Chair, Mrs Aitchison. I offer my personal thanks to the very special Executive Team, Mr Hotham, Mr Kirkham, Mr Power, Dr Williams, Mr Gibbs, and Mr Baker, who all support me so ably, and with such care and love.

And finally, I thank our Senior Year Deans, Whaea Randell, Mr Hay and Mr Marrow, as well as Mr Gunn, Ms Heeps, Mrs Schmidt, Mr West, Mr Dent and the many, many staff and students who have contributed to our celebration today.

Our best wishes and sincere thanks, to all staff leaving our world at the end of the year. Some have shared their lives with us for many years, and others for just a few. But their combined contribution has been immense, and we will miss them very much. They can feel proud that they leave Hamilton Boys’ High School a stronger and happier place because of their presence and support. Today, we offer our thanks to them all. In particular, I wish to pay tribute to long serving staff Mr Stowers, Mr Matthews, Mr Jones, and Mr Hague.

And today we must take a moment to pay tribute to those who have passed away; we remember their place in our family with gratitude. Many of our trophies and prizes are named in memory of very special people who are no longer with us. As we present these prizes this morning, let us take a moment to remember those we have loved, those we have lost, those who also made such a difference to the school we cherish today.

I speak often of our position as one of the very best schools in New Zealand, in sport, in cultural activities, in our academic success, and in our focus on service and character development. The successes of the year which we have shared reflect this reality, this level of excellence both regionally and nationally. We have so many things to be proud of.

And this morning, as we reflect upon the goals we set for 2022, we can feel proud of how many of those hopes we have realised, how many goals we have achieved, and how many positive events we have shared.

2022 has been a year in which we have been able to move beyond the challenges and restrictions we have faced. We have experienced the joy of the normal, and shared the excitement of participating in so many of the events of a traditional school year, in some cases for the first time since 2019.

And in that ‘return’, we must bring the lessons of the past two years. Because we have also seen our world change; our perspective on life has altered, and as our graduates of today leave school and begin adult life, their perspective should, and indeed must, differ because of these important life lessons.

I speak often of the verities, the truths upon which we must reflect as we travel through our lives. And today, our reflections must centre also on the lessons we must learn, from the year which is so rapidly coming to an end.

Hunter S Thompson stated that to give advice about life implies something very close to egomania!

So, with humility, I will not give advice to you today. Rather, I ask that you reflect, with intention, on those life lessons you can take from your years in our world.

What have we learned from the world we have shared through COVID? How has it changed our approach?

And more importantly, what are the things which we must not allow to be altered through the experience? What are those things in our lives which we must cherish, and cling to, in our rapidly evolving existence?

We have been blessed, over the past few weeks, to have opportunities to celebrate the achievements of so many special young men, in such a range of endeavours.

We are thus able to hold on to those verities I speak of so often; the truth of 1 Corinthians Ch 13, v 13, that we must live a life filled with hope, filled with joy, and filled with love.

And we must always understand the critical need to have faith, faith in a future which we trust will bring those qualities of love, and hope, and joy to our lives.

And, as we come to the end of 2022, it is that truth upon which you must intentionally reflect.

The great existential psychiatrist Irvin Yalom used the phrase “meaningful uncertainty” to describe the way in which one should approach life. Not with unthinking optimism that all will be fine, or with a sense of pessimism that it won’t, but with a genuine understanding that the future is uncertain. And yet, that it will be meaningful and rewarding, providing we develop the capacity to accept the reality of uncertainty in our lives ahead, with faith, hope and with love.

For no other graduating class has this truth been more significant. Because it is the reality, over the past three years, that our faith in an unalterable future has been shaken.

And our response to this reality, as a community, cannot be through that unthinking optimism, that everything is now fine and we can go back to how life was. Nor can it be through the pessimism of waiting for the next misfortune to strike.

Our response, as a community and as individuals, must centre back to those verities upon which we have built our values over the past five years. It is our understanding of those which cannot change.

Our sense of hope, and of joy, must be grounded in an understanding of the world as it is, not of how we imagine it can be, or should be. A world of “meaningful uncertainty”.

By recognising that our future is uncertain, we are forced to reflect, more intentionally than ever before in our lives, upon those principles and beliefs upon which we must base our future.

The wonderful writer, Victor Frankl, spent much of WWII in a POW camp in Auschwitz, losing his mother, father and brother in the mass murders of the camps. He survived, and immediately after the war had finished, he wrote a beautiful book, “Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything”.

In this reflection, he cautions against the defeatist, Holocaust inspired end of the world mindset he saw in 1945. But he also cautions against the "blithe optimism" of previous, pre-war generations.

His solution to finding a sense of meaning and purpose in our life is to change the question which we ask of it.

"In the final analysis, the question we ask of the meaning of life is not asked in the right way. It is not we who are to ask ‘what can I expect of life?’ But rather ‘what does life expect of me?’" We are the ones who must answer, not the ones who must ask.

And because of this, both the joy and the suffering in the world can be put into perspective. Both are what makes our time meaningful. Our existence is uncertain, but it is also meaningful, because we can and must live a life of purpose in our response to that most important question.

It is not only the uniqueness of the individual life as a whole, but it is the uniqueness of every day, every hour that provides our sense of purpose, and the necessary reality of both sorrow and joy in our experience. Any hour whose demands from life we do not fulfill, is forfeited for all eternity. And conversely every hour in which we seize the opportunity is ours forever.

Frankl’s conclusion:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing - the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any set of circumstances.”

Because, in the end, each of us is responsible for our own unique answer to the critical question. What does life expect of me?

And our answer must always be one based on faith, hope and love.

This is the truth, which we must take from our experiences, both positive and challenging, from the past two years. We cannot give in either to senseless, thoughtless optimism, or to the cowardice of the pessimist.

We must have faith - the faith to dare, to think the unthinkable, but still act within the limits of the realistically possible. Never a passive approach, but one which approaches life with impatience, looking for every possibility within the reality of genuine possibility. Only then, can life be purpose driven, and only then can we answer the universal question.

Why do I emphasise this to you this morning? Because today, gentlemen, as you graduate, you take a significant step. A step into what Shakespeare termed the "brave new world", the brave new world of adulthood.

To continue with Shakespeare, the advice given to Hamlet also reflects what matters most through this time of change. “We know what we are, but we know not what we may be”.

You have come to know yourself, as you graduate today. What you “may be”, remains yours to define in the years ahead.

As Frankl concluded, “you have the essential freedom to choose your attitude to any and every set of circumstances”. Whatever happens in life, we have that control.

Choose well, recognise the truth of the lessons of 2021 and 2022, that the life we know, and expect to continue, can change at any time. Because this recognition brings a far greater awareness of the beauty and joy of the life we have. And because through the experiences and disappointments of the years we have shared, comes the place where the light of joy and hope can illuminate our world, bringing a genuine understanding of what J Cole calls the “beauty in the struggle”.

The reason each graduate today can leave with real pride, lies in part that he has developed the knowledge, skills and understanding which are an integral part of a good education.

But he also leaves recognising the moral values, the principles which guide us, the importance of living with faith, hope, and love, and with the strength of the knowledge gained through his years with us, and of his understanding and acceptance of the young man he has become.

The years of secondary school pass so quickly, but the difference these years make in your lives is immense. Because, in these years, you have grown from being a boy, to manhood.

Today, we farewell you, our Year 13 Graduates. Each of you must leave with a sense of confidence and assurance that, whatever happens in the years ahead, you remain a part of our family; you are loved.

As your time as a student ends, recognise the legacy you leave for the future, and for all who follow you.

Accept the truth that we are able to state, with both great pride and with the respect of genuine humility, that Hamilton Boys’ High School is a very special school, because of your contribution, and that we end this year even better, stronger and happier than before.

It is with sadness on our part that we say goodbye to our leavers today, but we also share your excitement, your hopes and your dreams.

It is our wish that your life will always be filled with friends who mean as much to you as those with whom you have shared the past five years – friends who have been there for you in good times and difficult ones, your band of brothers.

Congratulations, Godspeed, and remember that our love goes with you, as it does with all of the staff members who depart at the end of the year.

I wish everyone here a most peaceful and joy-filled Christmas season and holiday break, and a happy and fulfilling year in 2023.

Nō reira, e mihi maioha tonu ana ki a koutou katoa.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

I conclude with special words of farewell, to all who will not return to be with us next year:

“May God's blessing follow you all as you begin your new journey in life.

May you walk safely, along the pathways of your dreams.

May your hearts reflect always, the love and the truth we share in our world today,

And may hope be a light within you, that you carry with you forever.”