Cambian Whinfell are always very proud of the young men in the school, but they wanted to share a short story of why yesterday they were all especially proud of a young man they found polishing boots in the management office.
Fourteen months ago a young man arrived in darkest Cumbria from the bright lights of London. This alone would be a shock to the system for any city slicker and the young man in question found it especially hard to adapt to life 'Up North'.
Having had a carefree life roaming the streets with his mates, seldom going to school and often making poor decisions, suddenly there were a bunch of adults who spoke about strange things like ghylls and ginnels, fells and meres (look them up!) and expected even stranger things of him (like going to school!).
Although we never had any doubts about it being the right move for him, he doubted himself and found it difficult to believe he could ever achieve any of the things we were aiming for. What made it especially difficult was that he felt he had never done anything to be proud of had never really been accepted by anyone.
Cut to yesterday and the reason for the boot polishing. The young man in question was preparing for a special occasion. Last night, after attending every week for the last four months, John was inducted into the Army Cadets. What a pleasure it was to see him on parade, looking immaculate with highly polished boots to take his oath and be awarded his Cap Badge by the Lord Mayor of Kendal. We were all very, very proud of him.
The only question we all had was 'Why can’t you stay still and be quiet like that in class?'
Well done John!