I have been an assistant housemaster in Hodges House since Term 4 of 2015.\u00a0 In two weeks, I won\u2019t be any more.\u00a0 This is a very strange sensation.\u00a0 Over the last 5 years, I have seen enough Hodges Boys become Hodges Men to know that students who leave the house never really leave the house.\u00a0 The memories, the lessons, and above all the relationships which they have developed stay with them forever and make them part of an elite and exclusive club which they can\u2019t get out of, no matter how much some of them might want to.\u00a0 I hope that the same is true for assistant housemasters.<\/p>\n
However, I fear that the great and terrible truth about schools like Shore and houses like Hodges is that everyone is replaceable \u2013 Hodges has survived the departure of a legion of enthusiastic, genuine, passionate young men while I\u2019ll been living in it and I am sure that it will proceed past my departure without so much as a wobble.\u00a0 However, given that I have been given a soapbox to rave from for a few paragraphs, I offer three pieces of advice to those left in Hodges.<\/p>\n
Firstly, be positive about everything life throws at you.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s a morning roll-call, 2 hours of prep or an admittedly somewhat crazy lip-sync battle, you will find ways to enjoy the experience if you approach it with positivity and the goal of making it worthwhile.\u00a0 The inverse is also true \u2013 if you go into something expecting it to suck, you\u2019re almost certainly right.\u00a0 Whatever else you do with your life, do your best to choose to be happy.<\/p>\n
Secondly, take responsibility for whatever communities you choose to be a part of.\u00a0 Be a leader who stands up for others and who does unpleasant jobs which no one else wants to do.\u00a0 The World needs more role models and everyone values that kind of person.\u00a0 Besides, if you approach unpleasant jobs with positivity, they may not turn out to be that unpleasant (see point 1) \u2013 one of my favourite memories of Hodges House is deep cleaning the kitchen with Lachy and Angus on a Friday night while blasting Cher and trying to work out what some of the things in the fridge once were.<\/p>\n
Finally, take the time to thank people who matter to you (and not just a \u2018thank you sir\u2019 on the way out of a classroom \u2013 put some thought into it).\u00a0 On that note, thank you to my housemasters (Mr Morris, Mr Dobes and Mr Fitch), my colleagues in Shore Boarding other than Mr Separovich, and above all to the many boys in Hodges House with whom I have had the privilege of sharing a chat, a meal or a joke with over the last 5 years.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been great and I wouldn\u2019t trade them for anything.<\/p>\n
By Mr Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been an assistant housemaster in Hodges House since Term 4 of 2015.\u00a0 In two weeks, I won\u2019t be any more.\u00a0 This is a very strange sensation.\u00a0 Over the last 5 years, I have seen enough Hodges Boys become Hodges Men to know that students who leave the house never really leave the house.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","article_category":[],"article_tag":[11],"class_list":["post-3127","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_tag-hodges-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=3127"},{"taxonomy":"article_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/shore-boarding-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_tag?post=3127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}