School Honors Boards and Principal Drama

Why are you still in your car? U Well, I was under the impression that these videos were not going on the internet. Listen I didn't see them coming up on Instagram. I thought, this is fine. I go on YouTube I see myself in my disgusting car. Yeah yeah, yeah, you look bad. yeah It's so And you've got this whole fucking glamour sweet You told me you weren't doing videos anymore I thing about the car is it's a good sound It's a good sound actually and there's a construction site next to my apartment.ve a constuction site next to your apartment for fifteen years? We can't all have houses, Josh. You can if you move to. Oh, I'm not doing that know whatever you're about to say Hello Hi. Wlcome to Josh Thomas. friendriends. todayoday we've got Tom Ward, We're talking through grade ten. Me and Tom have been going through all the grades. I would say that that's starting grade ten, maybe this episode iss not going to make much sense, but you know, hello, listen, I live your life. Tom, how are you going? G great Is this the year that we get to talk about you breaking up with the girl because she was about to shave her head for cancer? Because if so Bockbuster episode. I think that happenens in Newton It did happen I can't confirm it happened anything I ruined the ending, I sort of told the ending. You did the whole thing. Oh, it's iconic th. So you're dating a girl. You tell them what you did. Well, my version of events, I was dating someone still high school dating, so We're not like going out anywhere, but quite a long time, I'd say it was one of your longer. It was may your first one. No, it was not one of my longer. It was not one of my longer. o. Don't raise the stakes like that to make me look like a worse person. No I would like to raise a st. I wasn't like love of. relationships' spoken about so far I have been like two days, three days like grade eight, it was like we basically alsol out and then get dumped to dump them two days later. then This, I feel like went on for like at least six weeks Yes, okay, fine And I found out that she was going to shave her head to raise money for canancer charity. Can I try and raise the stakes in the story again? Is's because she had a personal connection to somebody that was having cancer I don't think so. Obviously I'm gonna say that. but She was a drama student. Yeah, who loved attention. As we all did She saw an opening I was familiar the shape of her head Yeah I knew this was not a good idea. I knew what it would look like if I waited for her to do it before breaking up with her. And so I had to break up with her very quickly after finding out she was about to shave her head. But in my defense, I do think that I was planning on breaking up with her, but I was afraid of conflict. so I was putting it off. and this was just the nudge I needed to figure out what I really wanted. Go with her. What I wanted with this and That time with hair I wouldn't be so fussy now. I wouldn't do it now. Again, some self respect here in the present rather than in a text after this episode is recorded. I wouldn't break up with someone for shaving their head to raise money for cancer now. Yeah because it's a bit more fashionable now because they'd look cool that. although your wife wouldn't look them with a shaved head A She has a really nice round head, okay? Okay. Where is this girl h? father doesn't to have hair. so I have her father doesn't have hair and they share a lot of genetics. So I have a good idea He's a lovely round head. Would she, if I was going to defend fifteen year old you I do think that it wasn't just really the aesthetics that bothered you about it. It was performative that kind of high school performative charity, you know, there's those people doing it for like I didn't really feel like maybe what she was hoping to get out of it was raising money for cancer. I felt like what she was hoping to get out of it was sort of attention. Yeah, yeah, soion. Yeah social currency. It didn't feel I don't think it felt like she was being to us that selfless. I think you broke up with her for a personality reason, not because her head was too jagged to be shaved unlike your wife's current very nice smooth around head. That's I think right. She' the type of kid who I think someone's parent or family member died. And I found out because she was crying at school. And then when I asked, were you even friends with that person? she got very angry at me. and insisted that they were Not just her friend, but her best friend. M Grief hijacking. Grief hijacker Do you remember? I think also this might be the year that my childhood dog died which I found out maybe six years later from you was one of the worst moments of your life because I was mean to you. I felt really remember what you did. I it was one of these things that like really stuck with you for like years and years and then I found out that it was really playing on your mind I think I came to school late because my dog was getting put down. We were in class and your dog had been E she was hit by a car My brother, my brother was driving the car. My brother ran her over. Okay, well, I knew the dog was in a bad way. and then you said something to annoy me in the first class of the day I turned around and said, Is your dog dead yet? and then you went all quiet which I think was just to like really drive home because you knew you knew how much You're about to get me. Wow, the way you u The way you explain my intentions and I back I have context for how you operate a bit more now and your understanding of dramatic tension and And you went like quite sad looking and said She's being put down right now Mmm then I felt very, very bad Actually, from the bottom of my heart, don't think I did say something to annoy you. I think you've edited that in over the years in your memory Another thing that happens in this Oh Eera we were at the back of a classroom And I said to you, I said Hey Do you dare me to eat this paint that was peeling off the wall? And you werere like your idea. And I was like, well, do you dare me? ' if you dare me, I'll do it. And you're like, like if you want to do it. And I was like, okay, well, you dare. why? I wass just so bored all the time.ust try by anything youe paint Sometimes I wonder how that's affected me. Like would I be st you hear? Hm would I have a memory if I If I hadn't have done that Oh Was that led? I mean it was a public school. School was so old. Like yeah Yeah, the paint that was a temporary building for sure Yeah, yeah, it wasn't It wasn't a building that like that building's definitely not still there today. No that they were not choosing a high quality paint. Well it was peeling off. Wh Wh who who who's that for Who was I doing that for? Entertertainment Jp is to get through a boring. I feel a good way to frame the years would be by this school production that we did And I think actually in grade nine was the Rockest Eadford, which you won in Rock I said for people that aren't in Australia, is like a national like each school puts on like a six minute dance and there's like two hundred people One of the most iconic things I've ever seen is like somebody was representing like they're telling the story of the Holocaust and they used Michael Jackson's All I want to say is that they don't really care about us. And the school was representing I think wait, did I see that on a TV show? someonem playing a cliff at that? Maybe Chancea put in a TV show do we see it? Eith theer way, it really lets you know. So you have to like do it down to like a message and they're pretty clumsy messages out. school was done heroes. And it was a lot of people that were like being heroes. and it ended up with her a sisteract thing, which I realized recently was just how like religious drama teacher trying to squeeze a go based message into the Rcker Stepha, which really annoys me T meet a straight we a flamboyant, not gay. Very religious. Okay drama teacher well and dance teacher. New information for me. Yeah, he was really it was I mean, I don't want to as far as like as I remember, I think he's just gay for Jesus. He's not gay. But I don't think he was out or he wasn't gay. but he wasn't, you know, we don't know that much about the private lives of about teachers. W was a grade ten blockbuster Midsuburdayight's Dream MSD Lo is the Drug was what we called it. Which I just am now understanding. That's amazing. I didn't I was so stupid. God, I don't understand I like LSD LSD L drug I didn't get that either Wow. I don't think anyone got that Yeah. and then U I played bottom. att one point kind of the, you know, every school has like a Christian girl. It's a good singer that gets wheeled out. Benca, we've already introduced her as the Shine singer. Yeah. And She' sing Yeah, she's sing like shine in grade eight and now she's singing. Wa, what's the song? It was like a Brian Adams Be a hero b No no that was Rockers Eford. That was in Rockers Eadford She's playing a song that comes on all the time and whenever I'm on the dance flor it comes on onn the dance floor? Like look it comes on at like gay dance floors. It takes me back to this moment in grade ten when I am playing Bottom. The big The big comedy bit that Bottom has in midsummer night'sream is he says die a lot of time. So there's really big, long, dramatic, over dramatic death. Also did At first, I was afraid I was petrified at some point dance routine to that I did I can't remember what you did. or you heard a sing? You're just say li if it was a drug Oh my god. It' traumatic. Absolutely traumatic. Well, you okay, you want to hear the revenge that the shaved headgirl got on me I had never sung before but I wanted to do the musical. so I auditioned with a song. I just perfectly imitated a song by the Doors, which was one of the audition pieces you had to do I just I don't know how I didn't know how to sing, but I just impersonated it And the music teacher who auditioned me for the singing had never seen me before and thought that I knew what I was doing. It gave me a really good mark for the audition. And I was like, Ohh my God, maybe I'm an incredible. So then they gave me the song to do, which was going be the opening number Kara, who is a phenomenal singer And then when they heard me, well, basically what happened is I didn't know how I'd been received, but at some point they decided the opening number would be sunng from behind the curtain in the wings. It got taken off you, didn't it? Itidn't get taken off me They just said to me We're gonna do this from the wings. and we're going to do the number without singers on stage. And I was like, okay, makes sense. Months after the musical, the shaved head person we'd long broken up. said, o yeah, it was so funny when I was on tech team for that show. and Ms. Davis came and actually asked us to turn down your mic So I was back there singing On stage. I wasn't on stage. And that cara was there singing with me And it was just her. I knew that they turned your mic down, but I didn't realize you were off stage just singing it to a dead mic because I remember you tried so hard. I mean for weeks and weeks and weeks you tried It was so hard I had aing love isit trackord. and no one even no one even heard it. It was all round bad That's humiliating. The singing was humiliating. Oh, you really tried so hard at it. It was the opening number. Yeah. You don't want to fuck that up fair enough. It was the right artistic choice by Ms. Davis who's I can't wait for her response I know she's listening. She's gonna message me ye. I think we might get around to be honest. I think she's got a interesting point of view on some of these things. Wait And then also in Gre ten, is that when I lost my virginity No, no play with us was she? I sa was I was grade eleven. That's next episode. We went to Germany at the end of this year. so I'm kind of like inching towards that. I do wonder when people listen to this podcast, if they think we went to the fanciest school in the world. We did not go to a p school. We went to like a public school, but we were in this program that was called German immersion where all of the classes were in German. Like when we were this age, I knew the periodic table in German Ls like absolutely no issues What of it? Why do you think people would think it's posh? Isas it when you were talking about eating paint off the wall? Just in the other episodes we spoke about them opening up like the because we had like a big art center open while we're at the school, which was nice and we're about to go an exchange together. L our whole class is about to go on an overseas trip. Like that's pretty posh, even by the standards of a public school the paint and the Yeah, but it was not like we were there at like the height of what could possibly have happened at that school The stars aligned for those six years The German immersion exchange trip was canceled like two years after we went, they do not do it for that long anymore because of the behavior of the children. we a I think we're going to talk about that next week. We part two on that I think, because it seems like a lot and these episodes are supposed to be short You know so that people can be to listen. I would like to tell you something about our school that someone told me and A a dance floor recently. I don't know if I told you Have you ever heard about how highigh School honors bard? Have you ever heard this story No limpage and so the way into where we have like our school assembly, there's like a wall where there' like these framed photos of like like honors students. It started after we graduated and from our school, there was Edward who like went on to play AFL a bit and me That was like the first two that made Edward made on a lot earlier than me. I was like they didn' been put them for years and years. and this was a thing that like, It was often like when I was like twenty or twenty one, people would like come up to me and tell me that They won't put me on there or something? I don't know. And that was a thing. And then Someone who recently came up to Tience was talking about it a few years ago And they told me that the school got sued. Could this be true? Please, someone messageed me and tell me if this is true The school got sued by a porn actor graduated from our school. this girl that was like a hugely successful Whatn actor? Yeah, because they wouldn't put her on The honors board And she met them. And she sued them and they got and then she was on the board. So like So like for a few years you'd go into assemily. I don't know if it's still there. I don't know what's happened. This And it would ridiculous. Edward and this b. couldould it be true? No, the person that told me was so credible. That is phenomenal. Isn't it canan you believe? Henmore High has a paorn star on their board. I don't know if they do anymore, but I think maybe now But also it was like there was something going on. L I couldn't believe how often people were coming up to me before the Pont sire and talking to me about this like framed picture on this bit of the wall. Like it was so I don't know. For some reason it just really captured the mood of the school early on, but I haven't been able to get anyone to corroborate. Can someone please tell us Firstly who the pawnstar is. You'd like to have a look. I'd like to have a look. Yeah. I mean, they must be talented. I obviously love that this person's photo was on the wall But I'm shocked that the school opted to not get rid of the wall. Well, that's what I can't believe. And also, you remember our school culture was shifting at this time because you got to do school principal Mr. Haines. I don't know if he' there anymore, but he was obsessed with like The school being elite. So we were like in when we started at the high school, we were just wearing polo shirts and then he decided ifone had to wear blazes to this public school. And then like there was all these like me who used to do like little sketches on assembly every so often, or like we'd present a speech and be funny. And he started like telling us off for not like acting appropriately. and he wanted to make the school assemblies a lot more formal. And then I think one of his next initiatives is this wall of honor And he hated me. And remember he just hated me. I remember in grade twelve, we'll talk about the end of and performance. We did the just like haze, this sc prrin of Mong video and He wouldn't put me on the board for a while, which was something because I was like on TV after that, it was the porn star. And the vibe that I get is that it's just because everyone was so annoyed at like him try to turn the school into this like elitist thing that nobody fucking wanted. Everyone likes that it was like a casual neighborhood school that people left with good grades and didn't have to wear a tie. I think that's what's going on I'd love are peopleeople are gonna to tell me getting you getting messages from people in high school at the moment? I am. No. I don't follow anyone on Instagram that would be here. So I think that's the end of this episode. We're gonna do parts. We're gonna talk about exchange because it does feel like a whole app. We lived in Germany for three months when we were sixteen. fifteen, just wilder. Because we could drink when we werere in Germany. We sixteen. We were fifteen Your ten in Brisbane is fifteen. Are you sure? I've never been more sure about anything in my life. I'm gonna go now because I can't get over the fact that I haven't showered. You can't shower. You don't have any hot water, yeah I might go to my neighbor's house. Goodbe. Bye bye Thank you Thank you