Hero photograph
 
Photo by Andrea Cosgrove

Head Boy's Report

Emmanuel Fa'avae —

Malo e lelei. Ko hoku hingoa ko Imanuela Faavae. Ki Mu’a fai ha lea, kou uluaki oatu heni ae fakamalo moe fakafetai lahi ki he etau tamai fakahevani, i he tau toe ausia ki he aho mahuiga koeni. Oatu heni ae fakamalo ki he tau Pule ako Mr Sutton pea moe ongo tokoni pule ako ko Mr Goodfellow pea mo Mrs Wheeler. Fakamalo atu ki he tau Dean Ms. McLaren, pehe kihe kau faiako hono kotoa, I ho’o mou tauhi mo tokoni mai kimautolu fanau ako. Fakamalo heni kihe head girl Crystal Edminstin moe tokoni head girl Jorja Woodgate pea mo Juanita Fifita moe kau matapule hono kotoa, o a’u kia moutolu fanau ako hono kotoa.

My name is Emmanuel Fa’avae and I’ve had the immense honour of being your head boy for 2020, and it is with great pleasure that I give you my last and final address.

Stepping into this school, I was this small Pasifika kid with a receding hairline and massive gaps between my teeth. I was a shy little boy who never took the courage to speak, at all. A few students even thought I was deaf because of how mute I was.

In class I was never the smartest kid, I was never the sportiest nor was I the best musician, let alone the best looking. Never in a million years would I have seen myself as one of Hornby High School's very own head students, let alone a pasifika leader who young students aspire to be. I still can’t believe my role in this school. It is a huge privilege to have been one of your twelve prefects where intense work and obstacles arose these past four terms. I learnt to overcome my fears, creating change within our kura.

Growing up of Tongan descent, we are taught to value our faka'apa'apa which in English translates to respect. We are brought up where we learn to respect and love our peers, our elders and our children. Living by respect has not only carved the person, but valuing respect has also taught me life lessons on being the leader I am today, and I am forever grateful and will continue to live by this. I hold this value with pride and joy.

In all honesty, this year was difficult for a lot of us, not only in New Zealand but world wide. We have faced many challenges in our country this past year, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic still in place. The virus affected our society hugely in different ways. We were forced to go in and out of lockdown, resulting in school’s having to adapt to a new way of learning. Events were cancelled and delayed and a lot of lives were lost. It most definitely was not easy for the prefect team; we were forced to deal with nearly a whole term lost without school, events and the activities we were planning to hold did not go as planned, however although it was not easy, we managed to work our way around it as a team.

These challenges and obstacles were hard to overcome but we continued to work together through the hardship to achieve where we are right now. I am proud to say that I myself, have achieved and reached my goal, of simply just graduating from high school. I want to be the first from my family to attend university, going on to study first year in health science at Otago in 2021, with a hope of a career in medicine.

My journey through high school has not been easy, but I have learnt resilience, and from this day onwards I can guarantee that I will still make plenty of mistakes, but I can also guarantee that I will learn from them.

As a student, my time here at Hornby High School was not set out for everyone to see me just as a leader but as someone who makes a difference for the better, hoping to leave my legacy behind, along the many great leaders you see here tonight.

Before I leave, and mark my final words down here in high school, I have a few words of gratitude I’d like to give to a few of you.

First and foremost, all thanks and praise to the lord above for blessing us all with the gift of being here tonight.

Secondly, my family. Shout out to you all for the never ending love and support. To my parents and grandparents, I will always cherish and savour the moments of anger and frustration I put onto your shoulders. Nana I will always remember your stubbornness, even from telling me off for never raking leaves the “right way”. Mum and Dad, thank you so much for being my financial, I do hope you continue to do the same next year whilst I'm in university. But on a serious note, I could never live life without any one of you, you all put me in my place and will continue to do so, I am forever grateful to have you here alongside me on my journey. You guys are the reason I am the person you see here today, and I am lucky to have been raised by a loving family. I love you guys.

To my friends, from words of discouragement to our roast battles, high school wouldn't have been the same without you guys. I will never forget the little moments we shared like living our best life and handing in our last minute assessments.

My fellow prefect team, 2020 was not the year we thought it would be, but we still managed to pull through together as a family. I am proud of every single one of you and your achievements, wishing you all the best

My Dean, Ms. McLaren. "Gratitude is the best attitude" this quote just brings me back so many memories already, with you going on and on about it every Monday morning, it has come a long way. From my time here at Hornby High School, all I’ve seen is you continuously pushing every single one of your students to strive for excellence. Most of us know you for your honesty even though it hurts a little, and without your help most of us wouldn't be here today. The year 13’s and I are forever grateful for you keeping us in place and your endless support. You will be missed, and your hard work has not gone unnoticed but appreciated by many.

And last but most definitely not least, I’d like to give a special thanks to Mrs Beer, Miss Aitken, Miss Abernethy, Mr Stock, Mr Reizinger, Mr Wilson, Mrs Wheeler, Mr Goodfellow and Mr Sutton for being a teacher, friend, counsellor and a parental figure. I am so grateful and blessed for the knowledge you guys have passed onto me, I appreciate all that you have done and sacrificed for my own learning. You guys definitely made high school a much easier experience for me!

I leave you with this:

"Fakakoloa 'o Hornby High 'aki 'a e Lotu Mo'oni" - enriching Hornby High through prayer and faith.

I leave, hoping that my presence and time here at Hornby High School made nothing but a positive change, wishing you all nothing but many blessings and praises for the year to come. I am ready for my next chapter in life and I am excited to see where it takes me, thanks to you all.

Malo aupito