Welcome (To Your New) Home

28 September 2021Jensa NG, Mack 22

On September 5th, Brentwood welcomed, with open arms, this year’s SEC (Student Executive Council). The hospitality from Mr Bud Patel, Head Of School, was just the incentive needed to make this Brentwood year one for the books.

As the Mill Bay sun sparkles across the dewy green grass of Gillespie Field, Brentwood is buzzing with excitement. The grounds crew has been working tirelessly over the past three months in preparation for this day. Rogers House was gifted a brand new patio to spruce up their “Meet the Parents” reunions while Aster, Azalea, Black-Eyed Susan, Buttercup, and California Poppies cover our campus from Crooks Hall to the Foote Center. The seals, gulls, and crabs of the Pacific are all excited to welcome back the Brentwood family.

For many houses, the welcoming of new students came earlier than expected. For a reason still unknown to many, around 10:30pm on September 5th, houseparents received a phone call informing them that they had a bus full of inter-continental, sleep-deprived German students awaiting them at Crooks Hall. Mack House Captain, Rory P, Athletics Prefect Jocie L, and I started our trek to welcome the latest European influx.  “I wonder what grade?”, “I wonder what floor?”, “I wonder who their roommate is?”.  All brilliant questions from the leaders of our school, (and me) but with no answers.

As we reached the Crooks Dining Hall, Grace D And Sophia T, sent by Alex House to round up their new German housemates, were eagerly awaiting their arrival. Every house accounted for? Whittall/Alex, check; Hope/Privett, check; Rogers/Allard, check; Mack, check; Ellis House? … – Phone call between me and Mr Barrett- “Hey Mr. Barrett, umm is Ellis expecting a new German boy?” I ask awkwardly as I peer into the crowd of thick accents and stylish bags, and see one boy unaccounted for. As instructed by Assistant Houseparent, Mr Barrett, Nate R, and Ellis House Captain, Trecker J, come sprinting to welcome, with open arms, their new Ellis brother.

The 6th of September was an honest preview of Brentwood’s chaos. Moms helping their little babies move in, dads circling campus searching for the confusing signage that will lead them to the parking field, and teens, meeting their roommates, and housemates, for the next 42 weeks. The lineup to acquire uniforms from the school store was possibly longer than the Great Wall Of China. But that was nothing that Julie M (Miller, not Murray) and the laundry ladies couldn’t handle. Brentwood Guest wifi bombarded with applications, packages lost, tears shed. But all of those mishaps and stressors are no comparison to the power of pure grit and joy, the ethos of the school, the family, that is Brentwood College School.

Parents, if they haven’t called in two days, don’t worry, your children are fine.

Kids, if you only have a few friends on campus, don’t worry, time will bring you more.

Invest in the opportunities and you will flourish.

New students and families, welcome to Brentwood!

Jensa NG, Mack 22