Welcome to Year 13. I hope you made wise choices over the vacation and have returned fully rested, with your work up to date and sorted out, and with a head full of interesting things that you’ve thought about and learned over the summer. If you’ve rested, reviewed and read in approximately equal measure during these six weeks you are in the dream position to face the coming challenge. And let’s not kid ourselves – Year 13 is a challenge: Year 12 was a big step up from GCSE – Year 13 is a big step up from Year 12.
In year 12 you were studying your subjects. I’m going to model that by throwing a ball up and down. It’s not so easy, you can certainly make a mistake and drop it, particularly if you don’t concentrate on where you’re throwing or put enough effort into making sure you’re in the right place to catch it. It’s not so easy, but I can keep this going ok. Probably even whilst talking to you – which, in my metaphor, is having a bit of a social life – if the ball goes flying then I may have to stop talking for a while to get it back, but mostly I can do both.
Of course, school and friends aren’t the only things going on for you, and over here we have the ball called life – parents, health, society, work, money – all the things that get in the way of your studies and your social life. And you can keep this one going as well – it’s a bit more difficult, and might mean more pauses in your social life, but two balls is ok – you have two hands.
Well, that was year 12. It’s now Year 13 and you have to think about your future – you have to apply to universities or apprenticeships, to think hard about what’s next, to accept the fact that in the remarkably near future you’re going to be a grown up with adult responsibilities. And so, a third ball, and this is hard, because wherever you put it, there’s one in the way already and so you have to keep one in the air. Year 13 is juggling, and that means really concentrating, sometimes they go up high, sometimes they scoop round low, sometimes they go from side to side, but it always feels like if you drop your concentration then it will go wrong and you’ll look fairly silly.
But you’ve just watched me do it – perhaps you’re thinking that it looks pretty straightforward – some of you, I imagine, can actually juggle – or perhaps you’re thinking that I could just have put the balls on the floor and not bothered – or maybe you were watching spellbound and thinking that you’d never be able to do that.
I’ll get to those thoughts in a minute, but first, let’s have a look at the idea of metaphor. Despite what some of you might have thought when you were writing your GCSE, a metaphor isn’t simply saying one thing and meaning another: things being gloomy is almost certainly not a metaphor for death. The word “metaphor” comes from the Greek to carry over and the idea is that you carry meaning over from one situation to another. I might, for instance, when I was your age, have described a girl for whom I had romantic feelings by saying “her eyes are emerald”. You’ve heard that one before no doubt – and some of you will be thinking to yourself that I’m saying her eyes are green. If you are and you think you’ve got metaphors straight in your head then listen up – you’re missing something quite crucial. If all I wanted to convey was that the eyes of my beloved were green then I could have told you that her eyes were pond slime – if we choose the right pond that’s exactly the same colour, but it’s not at all the same meaning. I might win her over by saying that her eyes are emerald but the best case scenario for the pond slime metaphor is that she stalks off and never speaks to me again. The reason is that I’m carrying over the idea of value and beauty with the emerald green – this girl is gorgeous and priceless. She’s not foul smelling and in need of a proper clean.
One of my favourite non-metaphors comes from the porter in Macbeth. Macduff arrives at the gate and they get into a conversation in which he asks “What three things does drink especially provoke.” The porter says “Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery.” The key word here is equivocator. Equivocation is saying something and letting the other person understand something different and it’s not metaphor. In 1606 (when Macbeth was first performed) this was a feature of religious law – being Catholic was forbidden by English law and lying was forbidden by Catholic law so what should a Catholic do if asked about their religion – the answer was that they should equivocate. You, sir, are you a Catholic? “I wouldn’t say so” is an equivocation – it sounds like I’m saying “no”, but I’m not lying. “What about you?” “I’m no more a Catholic than is the Duke of York” also sounds like a no, but if the Duke is Catholic himself… This was particularly important when you realise that in November 1605 we had the Gunpowder Plot and a group of Catholics were executed horribly for the crime of attempting a military coup by blowing up the King, his sons and most of the country’s political leaders. In the play, though, strong drink is not a metaphor for religion, and nor is lechery – what’s happening here is a rude joke and also some signposting – Macbeth the play has really strong themes of equivocation (and also regicide – it was incredibly bold to put it on the stage) – the witches, for example, saying one thing and letting Macbeth hear a quite different meaning.
So, what meaning can we carry over from our juggling? Well, if you’re thinking that Year 13 looks straightforward, that I’m making too much of it and you’ve never had a go at juggling before then get yourself three pairs of rolled up socks and see how you go. Or you could simply take my word for it, follow my advice. That seems like a pretty sensible thing to do – I know some things – I’ve got game when it comes to Year 13 – you might easily meet someone better at juggling than me, but you’re unlikely to meet anyone who knows more about Year 13. Some of you, however, will know what you’re doing. If you aced the end of year 12 exams and have spent your summer fruitfully then you can already, metaphorically at least, juggle. To you the message is that we’re here for you, that you don’t have to worry if you drop a ball – there are lots of people here to help and we know that next year is harder than last.
If, on the other hand, you think that making an effort is overrated, that your plan for the year is to do as little as you can get away with and imagine all will be fine then you need to realise that this really only harms you: you’re only seventeen once and if you don’t use that year to work hard then twenty five year old you will be working twice as hard for half the pay anyone else is getting and will be calling their past self a jerk. Don’t be unkind to twenty five year old you- they’re good people.
And if you’re listening to what I’m saying and despairing of making a success of things – Year 12 was hard and didn’t go brilliantly and you don’t feel ready for the step up then I have some key points of advice – each is really easy to decide to do, and, in itself really easy to do and, taken together, they will make sure things go well for you. So, listen carefully, decide to do them, then do them. Three commitments – for the three juggling balls.
If you do those three things, starting today, you’ll find things go your way this year – you’ll soon be juggling all the demands of Year 13: doing your work, thinking about the future, coping with the necessities of life and maintaining a bit of a social life. If something is taking your attention away from those – particularly I’m imagining computer games, youtube videos or social media, but it could be drugs or alcohol (which we know is good for only three things: sleep, nosepainting and urine) or even a girl with pondslime eyes – if something is taking your attention away from what you need to be doing then cut them out, put them off for once your exams are over next summer. 25 year old you will be grateful – I promise you.
Footnotes:
1. Metaphor and allusion fill more assemblies than can sensibly be noted, but of particular interest are "A Metaphorical Violin" and "Boot Confidence"
2. Emerald has not come up before as a colour for eyes, but it has for cities - in "Changed for Good"
3. The porter scene in Macbeth is Act 2, Scene 3 and is a delight of allusion and implication that I have not done justice to here. Further reading on this period in Shakespeare's life would include James Shapiro's book 1606 - The Year of Lear.