Good morning/ afternoon, Mrs. Burns and class.

You know, that sometimes in life, everyone has role models and you look up to them for different reasons. Like, you look up to your father, your uncle or whatever. They’re role models because they help you to get through life and they teach you a lot of things. They have their views and philosophies on life and in general, and you listen… because they’re older and they’ve been there, done it. They inspire you in different ways and you learn a great deal from them about life and stuff.

Well, I have this friend whom I consider to me as a really great and important guy that I have met—he was a special person. His name is Garry… He’s 29 turning 30 this year and he’s married. I’ve known him for a long time since back in ’94, I think, when I was In Year 3. He was a teacher at my old school called St. Gabriel’s for deaf children, and I used to go there until in Year 6.

Over 2 years we developed a really close friendship, to the point where we would write letters to each other in school and we always each get a reply from each other. It was a lot of fun, pretty exciting. He was 24 or 25 back and I was 9 or 10. Man, we had a lot of great times. We went to heaps of excursions, like camp, did activities and all that stuff.

Our friendship was unique because not many people have it… I mean, he was way older than I was. We always hang out a lot and went outside of school a few times too. The teachers all thought it was great, about the whole thing. But then, in ‘95…about a few months before the end of the year…Garry told me that he would leave school to go travelling overseas for 3 years. I mean, that was terrible, I was really sad and shocked. He meant a lot to me, and we were really good friends, and I thought of him as a best friend even.

We had an assembly there, towards the end of the year and many students were giving him flowers and cards and stuff to say goodbye to him. Then they all rushed in and hugged Garry, nearly knocking him over, because he was a pretty nice guy and everyone liked him. But I was the only one who stayed behind. I mean, reality hit me. He wasn’t going to stay here or anything and would be gone for a looong time. I would miss him a LOT and I didn’t want him to go. I was kind of mad at him because I wouldn’t see him at school anymore and all that. Then I started bawling my eyes out hard, my face was red and puffy and all. Garry saw me, and laughed—in a good way of course and came over and hugged me really tight and hard. It was a good feeling, made me feel a bit better… it was a sweet moment.

We had this Speech Night held at the end of the year, where students would put on a play or something and family and friends would come to see it. It’s kind of a tradition. That night Garry and the lot of us went outside and we did this another tradition that when someone leaves school, they have to dig a plant or tree so that we can remember that person by. So Garry did that and the students and I helped him, we had a photo taken and it was pretty cool.

I was supposed to meet him at the airport but I didn’t because his flight date had been changed and I didn’t know. He tried to call me at home but I was always out every time and he left for overseas before I found out. A teacher from my school sent me a message and it was from Garry, and he explained why…he also sent me a box of chocolates and it was good I think.

So more than 3 years passed, and I grew up so much. Yeah, it had been a pretty long time and a lot of things happened since then. But when he was on his travels we would still keep in contact via letters and it was pretty great to hear what he had been up to, and stuff. He went to London, Italy, France, Netherlands, England, Egypt, Greece and a lot of other countries.

Anyway, finally… finally he came back after more than 3 years. He’d come back in late ‘98 but I didn’t know that at that time. But somehow I found out last year about his arrival because for some reason I managed to track him down through the White Pages and call him at some club that he used to work there apart from teaching. I wondered if he was still there and thought it was worth a try. To my surprise Garry was actually there and I was really happy to hear from him. We caught up and talked a lot, and he gave me his phone number at home so that I could call him at his house. We arranged a date and time to go to the movies.

He picked me up at my house and it was great to see him again. He looked still the same. We went to the movies and saw Star Wars. We went to McDonald’s afterwards and we talked about stuff. It was a good day for both of us.

We kept in contact by phone every now and then. The next time I saw him again was during the holidays this year. We were to go to the city and do something. Garry came over to pick me up once again, and it had been a while since I last saw him. He sported bit of a stubble and his hair was a bit longer.

I had a special and meaningful experience that day because we spent a whole day with each other, just being in one another’s company for the whole day and I got to learn a lot from him. He was kind of passionate and philosophical about life, the death thing and issues of religion and stuff. Garry and I went to the city, and we walked around Darling Harbour for a while but then we had to go back because his wife Keryn had to go to work that day, and he had to take her there.

So we went to his house and I met his wife… she was really nice and lovely. Garry asked me if I could go for a ride on his Honda motorbike. I wanted to of course and we rode around the town for a while and I held on to him for dear life because we were going really fast! It was so insane and wild. We rode on the open road with cars around and it was cool.

We went back and it was time for Garry to take his wife to work… Keryn works at Channel 10 Studios as the graphics designer which means that she does pictures and the background on Channel 10 on TV. I went inside the studios and she gave me bit of a tour… it was interesting to see what it was like, there were lots of people on computers and all. Keryn showed me how to do graphics on the computer and I experimented with it. It was fun.

For the 2nd time Garry and I went back to the city because the studios was near the city, so it wasn’t far. We decided to go to the movies, and I wanted to see Scary Movie. But it didn’t start until 4:30 so we had lunch at Taco Bell and we went to Timezone afterwards. It was a lot of fun, we played some games. We did that snapshot machine thing where you have photos printed as stickers and the result turned out great. We saw Scary Movie and it was so funny, I laughed a lot! Garry enjoyed it too.

It was time to go back, it was getting dark soon. We went back to the studios and all this time, the whole day, we talked a LOT. it was unbelievable, I definitely had a great time, heaps of fun. He dropped me off at my house later in the evening.

I saw him again, a week later… twice in the same holidays. It was because I was having problems of my own in the family and Garry and I went to the park to talk about it. He made me feel better and helped me a lot and stuff. So that’s another reason why he’s a great role model… he is a good friend and is important to me

Well thank you for listening and letting me sharing it with you and it’s the story of my life. I guess the point to all this is that friends are important, and they’re there for you whenever you need them and most of all, hold onto them and do not let go. It’s nice to know that feeling. Goodbye.