About
Pigs and Endings
In chapel on May 28, Reverend Holland gave the following address to students about his writing and 'Leaving Behaviour.' Headmaster Lamont has asked that the address be posted here, with Rev. Holland's permission.
A number of staff have started up a writing group. I have a novel I have been fiddling around with for a while now – I started it in 1999. I know you think that's a mistake – but no, I started writing it 20 years ago. I am hoping this writing group will either help me finish it once and for all, or consign it to the fires of hell forever.
The working title of the story is Leaving Behaviour. I don't know if you have ever heard this phrase. It refers to how we sometimes start acting weird when we begin to prepare to leave a place: be it a school, a job, or a community. People who exhibit leaving behaviour find it hard to concentrate on day to day work, they begin to disengage from the people around them, and they start to think more about the future than the present. In other words, leaving behaviour is about leaving before you leave. Even if you haven't heard the phrase, I suspect that you are familiar with the phenomenon. Some of you are experiencing it right now.
As I occasionally do, I googled the phrase just to see what others had to say about this notion. I found just one site that uses the actual phrase leaving behaviour. The site outlines an experiment conducted to understand the changes in behaviour occurring when free-range domestic pigs leave the nest.
Let me read you a short excerpt directly from the site:
During the last five days of nest occupation, the litter spent more and more time outside the nests. And during the last days of nest occupation, frequency of reciprocal contact grunts and “long grunts” from the mother increased, indicating a change in the character of the mother-young interactions.
You are probably thinking" 'Wow, that's amazing that just like what happens here at Shawnigan at this time of year!' And you would be right. As we get closer to Closing Day, the frequency of grunts from teachers and students does tend to increase. And this does seem to indicate a change in the character of teacher-student interactions.
The interactions change because we are engaged in a different kind of work. We might also say that the intensity of our work changes, as we concentrate almost solely on preparing for end of the year activities, the most significant being final exams.
When it comes to baby animals like piglets, they are generally not anxious to leave the comforts of the mother: warmth, milk on demand, a soft place to sleep. Usually the momma animal has to kick the babies out of the nest.
Some of you may be feeling that way right about now, others may be feeling anxious to get school over with and get on with the joys of summer – or in the case of the Grade 12s, with the rest of your life. The point is that leaving means different things to different people.
What is common is that it is easy at this time of year to come down with leaving behaviour, to get easily distracted, and to lose focus and energy for some of the important work that is left to be done despite the long grunts of your teachers.
So, here is a different way to do leaving.
Since things do tend to shift as the year-end gets nearer, why not switch the leaving behaviour around as well. Instead of thinking just about leaving, why don't we think of what we are leaving behind; not just about the memories that we will take, but the memories that we will leave.
Instead of disengaging from the people we are going to be leaving, whether for a couple of months or forever, why not think of engaging with them now that we are still together.
This is the perfect time to say the things that you have possibly been putting off: the thank yous, the apologies, the compliments, and the heart-felt expressions of friendship. These few weeks might provide a freedom to express our genuine feelings to one another – preferably the positive ones.
And instead of being totally preoccupied with the future, why not use some of this time to reflect on what this year has meant to us. It has been a pretty full year, and there is a lot worth reflecting on and learning from, both the happy experiences and difficult ones.
This is a precious time in many ways. We might even say a sacred time. Because it is limited, it provides unique opportunities. It is our chance to crown a year of challenges and struggles and achievements with a final show of what we are made of, a last burst of creative energy.
And believe me, this final effort will have a major effect on how the year resides in our memories for ever more.
Let's finish well. Let's commit to doing our absolute best in the days ahead. And let's keep in mind what the old adage says about breakfast:
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
