My dearest A House,

I hope that all of you are well-rested by the time you're reading this. The past five days truly have been amazing in every sense of the word. I saw strangers become awkward acquaintances become teammates become family. I heard whispers become cheers, and stood in the middle as cheers morphed into war cries. I'm just popping by to put a nice close to the few days that have just passed us by as we move forward into the next and even more exciting chapter of the freshies' first step into university life.

Please don't be disappointed that we were the first house to be called up today. From the very beginning, we established that winning was not our priority. Sure, it would feel nice if we did, but it is no more than the mere bonus that it really is.
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Some might place great emphasis on winning best house for self-pride, others for house-pride, and still others because really, who wants to lose? But I am not in this for me, and A House, we have not lost.

I am in this for the freshies, because I have found myself a family that I can come home to after the grind of dreary school days. I want the freshies to find the seabed they can moor their anchor in just like how I have found mine. We don't need power ups to tell us if we're doing it right, or if we'll ever get it right. We don't need to be the best house to bask in the glory of A House. We don't need validation, because true house spirit can be seen with the eyes and felt with the heart, and this is exactly what I saw and felt as we started to get our groove on. Think about the war games that wrapped up our competition, I think you have right there a succinct, lucid example.

Arts camp is a journey, it is not a destination. It is not about where we get to, but how we got there, and I dare say (and very proudly) that A House, we got there good. As you walk around in school, you're not going to think about whether they called us the most enthusiastic, the most sporty, the most outstanding or even the best house. You are going to worry about whether you can make it for lunch with your OG on your crazy school day, and in A House, we have lunch with our OGs on our every day.

A House, remember to keep in mind the things that matter, and be thankful that you have been blessed with them. I am truly happy and cannot be more proud of what we've done with what we have, and I thank all the OGLs, councillors and crashers who have helped make this a reality.

To the freshies, all I can say is that it just keeps getting better. So fasten your seat belts, and welcome home.

With all my love,
Yvette