Co-Curricular

Endings

There is clearly something special about endings. They invoke feelings of sadness, joy, elation, disappointment, relief, satisfaction; the list goes on. Endings can ruin a story or fulfil it.

Literary scholar, Frank Kermode and storycraft teacher, Robert McKee would agree that a good ending does three things:

Resolves the central tension – the question the story raised is answered in some way (not always happily, but meaningfully).
Reveals the significance of what happened – the reader understands why the story mattered.
Feels inevitable but not predictable – when you reach it, it feels right, even if you didn’t see it coming.

Equally, when endings fail, it is usually because they break one of those principles. For example:

Unresolved endings – the story builds tension but never meaningfully addresses it.
Contrived endings – something happens that feels disconnected from the story that was told.
Tonally, inconsistent endings – the ending feels like it belongs to a different story.

Aristotle wrote that the end of a story is where the audience experiences catharsis – a sense that what has happened has been brought into its proper place.

Plainly stated, endings are where a story reveals its meaning.

If you listen to sport podcasts, watch any sport documentary – especially on ESPN or Netflix – or read a sport biography, narratives are central; they are almost inextricable from the current 24-hour global sport cycle. Regardless of the medium, the ending has at the very least a majority vote on how the story is remembered.

This weekend several of our teams will have their summer ending in the pressure of a Grand Final. Former Australian Test Cricketer and Coach, Justin Langer once said, “pressure is a privilege.” These endings are not burdens but opportunities earned through months of preparation. St Paul also reminds us to “run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24). For some of our boys, the prize will be a Grand Final victory and for others a defeat. Either way, there will be resolution, connection to the season that was, and it will all belong to them and their teammates. We wish them luck.

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” John Wooden (College basketball coach)

On Friday evening several of our students represented the College in the first round of Public Speaking. Standing in front of a room of peers and adjudicators to present your ideas clearly and confidently requires a kind of nerve.

We congratulate the following boys who were successful and have progressed to the Zone Finals this Friday, 6 March: