As Head Boy I’m not actually sure what I’m supposed to be writing here. It’s easy enough for captains and leaders of clubs because they have a specific role throughout the year.

My role as Head Boy consisted mainly of panicking about the Prize-giving speech and writing this. It would be a bit meta to talk about writing this as I write this so I will assume that I have free rein to talk about anything. However, despite the name, free rein isn’t actually free because this article gets edited before it’s put in the magazine.

Instead I’ll use this time to look back at the past five years of Logan Park and all their ups and downs. But it’s mostly ups.

The real issue with this article is that I don’t really have a clear memory of Year 9.  All my memories of Year 9 are sort of these brief snatches or really traumatising events. Actually the two traumatising events I remember both occurred in Year 9 Science, with Mr McKinney. Now, I really don’t want to record my failings for posterity within this magazine as the incidents were more than a little embarrassing.  All I’m willing to say is that it involved methylated spirits, dry ice, a metal drink bottle and a few moments of panic. I really have to thank Mr McKinney for his boundless patience when dealing with younger me and I like to think I’ve grown more sensible over the years.

Year 10 was really the time of Year 10 camp. And Year 10 camp was the time of the infamous Mud Walk. The Mud Walk was really something special, and I’m sure that it would have been a breach of the Geneva Convention if it had been done to prisoners of war and not school children. If our Mud Walk was a movie it would have been one of those horror films where the happy, excited children leave for a walk in the morning sunshine and then it ends with our freezing, mud-covered forms sprinting back to camp through the forest as black clouds build on the evening horizon. But all the more for that it was a time of bonding and the point where I really got to know the cool people in my year. I say the cool people because 10L were on a different camp.

Year 11 is a gap for me but it was the year we were all thrown head first into NCEA. I still find it disturbing that our education is put in the hands of NZQA, an institution that can’t even make a website that works. I truly believe that the Year 11 math exam was a vision of hell and as I looked around in the stifling heat of that exam I could see my classmates' faces twisted into masks of anger, confusion and despair.

Then there’s Year 12! And we’re all starting to feel a bit more like leaders of the school. But we’re not there yet and still technically have to respect the Year 13's, though I haven’t seen much of that from our Year 12's. The real highlight of Year 12 was the Vietnam trip that I was lucky enough to go on. It was on that trip that Mathew picked up a fan club, or harem, of Vietnamese girls who all called him Harry Potter and actually stalked us back to our hotel at one point. It was also on that trip that I learnt that Mr Fielding is a very loud poker player. While this could be endearing some of the time it’s really annoying when you’ve just drifted off to sleep at midnight and you’re jolted roughly awake by shouts of “I won! I won!” Echoing through the silent night.

And now it’s the end of Year 13. The very end too, because I forgot to write this article until the final deadline. Five years have sped past and now I, and all my Year 13 friends, face the daunting challenge of getting a life and not becoming hobos for at least the first year out of high school. To any Logan Parkers reading  this, make the most of your time at Logan, because it really is better than any other school out there. Have fun, do well and just keep being awesome. But whatever you do, just remember that you’ll never be as awesome as the Class of 2014.