become, highly sensitive to this fact, and always have been. I am also extremely lucky to be able to say that the badge that underpins that sensitivity is not worn with as brazen a jingoism as other institutions need, but through the practice of words and actions in the wider world of which they are part. Notwithstanding the amount of further knowledge gained through the benefit of travel, or of working in and with different domestic and international cultures, or of experiencing life challenges unique to those in my generation on the cusp of their thirties, these values tend to grow stronger the more one relies on them. It is as much a shame that this story may come as a surprise to some these days, as it is a great opportunity for those that the school has brought up with solid values, whether from Singapore, San Francisco or South Croydon, to step up and embody them in their personal lives. If the Middle East and Win Coll have taught me anything, it is that, beyond material realities, it is the inherent values that a society holds on to that are the glue that renders it timelessly stable, whether the confidence of the economy, or of the person, is subject to recession. And my own personal experience has taught me that those very values are far more common to us all, past the aesthetic veneer of flags, languages, currencies, steeples or minarets, than we are choosing to understand these days. On leaving school I chose to study Arabic and History at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where my avenues of thought and experience were expanded beyond measure( and, a bit too often, beyond reason). Past the politics,
economics, and laws of the Arab world, there is a language that shares the testament of timelessness, where the value of merging art, onomatopoeia and quantum mechanics is established in every collaboration and consolidation of dots and squiggles which make the very language a daily connection for me with my time at Winchester. My journey has led me to Damascus, where I helped set up Syria’ s first English language daily newspaper, and to Beirut and Amman, through the Honourable Society of Middle Temple, and now to Dubai, where I currently work as a bridge between the Common Law and Civil Law elements of the world, whilst building a platform for alternative Arab music festivals( proudly Wykehamical). It is a great honour to have been asked to act as guest editor for this year’ s Wykeham Journal. The central vein running through the stories in this journal is that, whilst we all have had our individual paths chosen, whether by timing, by coincidence, or by our own agency, there is a common journey that we all share, which truly is the most timelessly celebrated aspect of any institution, whether it be a school, a country, a region, or even an ideal. It has been a pleasure through this journal to reconnect with the school, with that familiar strong taste, and with you.
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