O Captain, My Captain

In 1989 I was 16 years old and my friends and I were about to embark on our A-levels. I went to the cinema with a group of friends to the Point in Milton Keynes, one of the few multi-screen cinemas at the time. I went to see a film called the Dead Poets Society. I didn’t have any expectations for the film but at a time in our lives when we were young and full of emotions; full of hopes and aspirations for our lives which lay ahead of us; it was particularly apt. The story is of a unconventional teacher at a very conventional boys school, who through poetry, encourages a group of adolescent pupils to think for themselves and to understand that through words and ideas, and the passions they evoke, it is possible to make change in the world. Through his teaching he urges the boys to ‘gather ye rosebuds whilst ye may’ and to live a life a little extra-ordinary. My friends and I went on to do our A-Levels together and were fortunte enough to have a number of teachers who understood the potential significance of their role in our lives, and who made our time a happy and inspired one. During our two years together doing A-levels, the sentiments of this film stayed with us and I like to think it made us do things a little differently. RIP Robin Williams.