CARPE DIEM

Kearsney College , like many fine educational institutions throughout the world, has a coat of arms with a motto. Kearsney’s motto, Carpe Diem, is in Latin and comes from the First Book of Odes by the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace). The Loosely translated the words mean “seize the day” or “seize the opportunity”. Although all students are usually able to trot out the two or three words of their school mottos, I wonder how many of them embrace their school motto as a guiding principle by which they live their lives.

?During the course of my long teaching career, one young man stood out as the epitome of a person who truly espoused Horace’s maxim, especially towards the end of a life which was cruelly cut short in the August of his matric year, twelve years ago. That young man was Luke Norris (Kearsney College Class of 2011).

I will let Luke speak through extracts from two of his essays written in March 2011, which I continue to read my senior English pupils as fine examples of the reflective essay.

?“My eyes open to a barren depressive hospital ward… I squeal as they twist the chilled steel pole out of my spine. Tears relentlessly start to flood my aggrieved and shocked face that has buried and bottled layers and layers of agony. I am ready to give in… The pain spreads throughout my entire body like a fury of knives stabbing me from the inside out… In my blurred vision, I can make out the shape of a man. This man changes my life forever as he shatters it into a million pieces. “Luke, I’m sorry to tell you this but you have leukaemia.”

?Luke was a remarkably resilient young man for his age and stature and, during the short time left to him in this world he was determined to “carpe” every single “diem” or, as Neil Perry said in Dead Poets Society, “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

?In his second essay entitled?Self-Discovery, Luke described being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia as “the defining moment of my life”.

?“The experience taught me that life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. You just have to live life to the fullest and surrender fully to the moment because it’s not the actual moment that defines us but rather how we choose to live in that moment. Prior to being diagnosed… I was just moving through the stages of life and just going with the flow… Although I have had difficulty in motivating myself towards the future because of my shortened life expectancy, I have realised that spiralling downwards has led me to the better place that I am at today. [Being told that I had leukaemia] open up a world of new emotions and appreciation for all aspects of life. It changed the way in which I see the world and the way in which I thought. It taught me to connect with other humans on a different level both emotionally and physically. It allowed me to dare, to search for perfection, to live in the moment and desire something I couldn’t have, something much bigger than me. It has truly defined who I am today.”

?He concluded with these words which encapsulate the true meaning of Carpe Diem, “Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are.”

?In the few months left of his life, Luke certainly lived up to that maxim. He had always dreamed of playing scrumhalf for the 1st XV and was given a chance to run onto the hallowed Stott Field proudly sporting his coveted “One-Stripe” jersey. There he found himself having to tackle a fifty-year-old Old Crocks prop who weighed in at 140kg! If my memory serves me correctly, he cajoled his best friend Declan Ahern to get up early in the morning in Sheffield House so that Luke could watch every sunrise in the time left to him.

?Many departed Kearsney College Old Boys are remembered by a plaque or some memorial on the College campus, but I believe that Luke the only one honoured with three: a beautiful stained glass window in the portico of the chapel, a brass plaque in Sheffield House and a tree planted by his friends which, after relocation, continues to flourish right next to the recently reconstructed cricket scoreboard at the edge of the A H Smith Oval.