Abingdonian 2020

58 The Abingdonian easily). But talking to them and reading articles on the internet has opened my eyes as to how strange the predicament is that we have found ourselves in; our individual struggles are both unique but comfortingly similar at the same time. Of course lockdown has taken its toll more significantly on some people than others. Where you live, who you are isolating with, and the state of your mental health before all of this occurred are fundamental factors in deciding how much the lockdown has and will affect you. But, coming back to the aforementioned questions, it is clear that this situation has affected us all and that we can cultivate a sense of identity and being from this fact. Our individual struggles in relation to the restrictions imposed upon us can be compared in some way to the struggles that other people are facing, and by starting a meaningful conversation with friends and family we can be enlightened in knowing that any difficulty or stress that we feel can be understood by almost everyone. It’s almost paradoxical to suggest that in ‘isolation’ we can be more connected and united with other people than ever before, but I shall do so anyway. I firmly believe that, in this country, a greater sense of community has been established over the last few locked-down weeks than ever existed before in my lifetime. It is extremely unfortunate that this connectivity has taken place in a time of such great difficulty and pain, but if we can take a positive out of isolation, then I think this should be it. For me, lockdown has brought into perspective the surprising similarities of human existence: our backgrounds and cultures may be incomprehensibly disparate, but our worries and concerns remain similar in a way that unifies humanity in a single sense of being, or ‘ontos’. I hope that everyone can find some strength in these ancient Greek values, and I also hope that they will be useful beyond lockdown. Although life may seem alien to us at the moment, and it may take a while for us to adjust to a new reality as the restrictions continue to be lifted, it is important to bear in mind that every task you undertake contributes to your telos, and that we are all united in some way under the principle of ontos. Patrick Heath, 7TJG If - by 2P As part of the Be The Best You Can Be programme, 2P were inspired to re-work Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, If, to reflect some of the values they had learnt during the last two years. An initial reading of the poem left the boys dissatisfied with some of Kipling’s sentiments about what makes a man, and so they were challenged to If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can see beyond a cool but unconsidered view, And, though the mass oppose, side with the few, If you can make mistakes when all others don’t- But not give up, and not lose hope, If you can push yourself when your peers won’t, And yet you manage still to cope, If you can risk not taking the easy path Though times ahead may treat you rough If you can force yourself to grind and graft And prove to all that breaking you is tough, If you can treat the errors you have made, As lessons from which your greatness grows, If you can see success is 10,000 hours played, And that from practice top performance flows, If you can lead your team to be the best, With mutual trust and extreme respect, But work with your peers, as hard as the rest, That your words might have the more profound effect, If you can stay strong, in every trial and test, And keep it going if you are bruised, If you can claim, though not at your best, When the pressure came on you never refused, If you can traverse the widest of rivers, By hopping and skipping from stone to stone, If you break down the whole by slicing into slivers, With SMART goals, you’ll have succeeded and grown, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And - which is more - you’ll be an Abingdonian! write new stanzas on the importance of goal-setting, resilience, teamwork, self-awareness, and learning from mistakes. This they did in groups, mostly during the remote-learning period, with guidance on the rhythm and rhyming pattern of the poem from Mrs Burrows, their English teacher. We decided to keep the opening couplet to show it was a deliberate re-working of the original, and the final stanza, with a twist! Though we could not hope to rival Kipling, the end result was impressive for its technical accomplishment, and more importantly for the emotional engagement and creativity of the boys, who go into Middle School armed with the tools to become great Abingdonians. Hugh Price