Every Wednesday morning at Oak Hill Academy, our Director of Student Affairs, Mr. Aaron Butt, shares a devotion with students and staff gathered for homeroom assembly. Below is a story Mr. Butt told recently that reminds students to embrace the opportunities for growth that our structured boarding school environment provides, challenging as they might be, and to trust the adults here to help them distinguish between what they want in the moment and what they need to go forward.

When I was 16, my grandparents took the four of us grandkids to a shoe store in Winchester, Virginia, to buy each of us a new pair of shoes.  My grandmother had grown up during the depression on a dairy farm in Massachusetts, and my grandfather flew B-24s in WWII.  They spent little, saved what they had, and didn’t take the prosperity I knew for granted.  So taking us to a store to buy new shoes was a big deal for them.

Well, I had a plan that day: to buy a new pair of tennis shoes for school.  Nothing definite, but I knew what I wanted–maybe a pair of Nike high-tops or Reebok pumps.   My grandparents had a different idea.  When we arrived at the store, I was informed that I didn’t have a choice–I had to buy a pair of dress shoes. What?! What was I going to do with a pair of dress shoes?  I certainly wasn’t going to show up at school the next day in them.  Why were they forcing me to get a pair of shoes I didn’t want?  …But they weren’t budging.  Well, I thought, I guess dress shoes are better than no shoes.  So I walked out of that shoe store, quite disappointed, with a pair of brown Rockports.  …Rockports?  Who had ever heard of Rockports?

Here’s the thing. My grandparents knew something I didn’t.  They were able to envision a future I couldn’t–a future where I would need, appreciate, and potentially even like a pair of dress shoes.  I wonder if they envisioned this:  that more than 20 years down the road, I would be an administrator at a boarding school in rural Virginia called Oak Hill Academy. And that I would still be wearing those brown Rockports this morning.  I have worn these shoes more than any pair of shoes I have ever owned–and every time I do, I appreciate my grandparents’ refusal to budge.

Now, that was just shoes.  But there were plenty of other times they pushed me in directions I didn’t particularly want to go.  When we’re growing up, there are times that we have a plan, and we know for sure what we want.  But we don’t always know what is best for us, what we need, and what is going to help us grow.  At 16 or 17 I had a hard time seeing 20 years down the road and anticipating what skills, qualities, and even shoes, I was going to need.  So I needed people around me (like my grandparents) to challenge me, nudge me, and prepare me for what was coming.  I didn’t always agree with them, or like what they were suggesting, but I trusted them because I knew they cared about me and wanted what was best for me.

At Oak Hill we sometimes ask you to do things you don’t necessarily think make sense, things you don’t necessarily agree with, or want to do.  I would encourage you to trust us.  Trust Oak Hill; trust your parents for bringing you here; and trust the adults in your life who have invested in working with you.  The OHA faculty and staff have been doing this a long time. We can see out a bit further than you can. We have been through a bit more of life than you have.  I hope we earn your trust. And maybe, just maybe, 20 years down the road you will still be using the skills and lessons you learn this year at Oak Hill.

Right now is the time to embrace this challenge to trust, and to embrace change and personal growth—things that aren’t necessarily easy.

So–I want you to remember these brown Rockports. I didn’t want them. But I’m glad my grandparents had the wisdom and strength to disagree with me.  Remember this story when you’re pushed or challenged, and trust that there are good people, just like my grandparents, who are here at Oak Hill because we care about you, and we might know a thing or two about what lies ahead for you.

Mr. Aaron Butt
Director of Student Affairs

Every morning at Oak Hill Academy, the community hears a devotion in homeroom assembly–a positive start to the day. Our Director of Student Affairs, Mr. Aaron Butt, regularly addresses the students and staff on Wednesdays during this time. Below is one recent offering, about how doing little things strengthens our small boarding school community.

There is a situation that I consistently run into–both as a parent, and as a school administrator. I’m sure you can relate: while walking around our dining hall, I see a napkin left on a table, or a cup, or a fork, and I ask someone leaving the table – “Can you please pick that up and throw it away, or put it in the dish window?” And what do they say? You can guess what they say: “That’s not my fork, my napkin, my cup. I didn’t do that.”

That drives me nuts. Why? Because someone’s got to do it. If I could track down the owner of the napkin, if I could interrupt the breakfast meal, hold up homeroom, do an investigation, call in witnesses, take fingerprints and collect DNA to determine the original user of the napkin or cup, wouldn’t that be great? …But really? Ultimately, I don’t care who did it; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that there’s a fork on the table that needs to get picked up. I’ve picked up 7 already, and it really doesn’t matter who left them, the forks needs to get cleaned! Is it my job? Is it someone else’s job? Who cares? Pick up the fork!

Those of us who are parents spend half our lives cleaning up other people’s messes. Last night (like many nights before) I went around the house turning off lights, picking up toys, putting away dishes, arranging shoes–none of which were mine. I didn’t make the messes. Should my kids learn to clean up after themselves? Sure. Are they messy? Yes. Do they need to be more responsible? Yes. (And that goes for the rest of us, too.) But in the moment, what matters is that there are lights on unnecessarily and they need to get turned off. I remember when my oldest son was about 3 months old. I changed his diaper for probably the 6th time that day. Afterward, I called up my mom and thanked her. I had no idea about all the things my parents did for me–how much time, work, and energy they put into me. We have no idea how much others are coming behind us, cleaning up our messes.

There’s a book that I love that I read to my kids. It’s called If Everybody Did, by Jo Ann Stover. It goes through humorous situations about what would happen if everybody…walked in the house with muddy shoes, left toys on the stairs, or squeezed the cat. Of course the results are catastrophic—and funny. In the world outside a children’s book, what would happen if everybody left dirty utensils on the table, spit on the sidewalk, or threw their trash in the ocean?  I dream sometimes about the opposite–what if everybody didn’t?

So what happens at Oak Hill if we all ignore the candy wrapper on the sidewalk? What if everybody thinks, “Well, someone else will pick it up.” What if we all assume someone else will pick up the water bottle we left on the bleachers, or the fries we dropped on the floor? What if we all just said, “Well, I didn’t do that…not my problem, someone else’s job”?

On the flipside, I sometimes imagine, and even catch glimpses of, an OHA community where “Everybody Did”–for good. What if we were a school campus where everybody looked out for each other, held the door, picked up after each other, noticed what needed to be done–and did it, even if it wasn’t their problem?
I see glimpses of that: a student checking the van to make sure it’s clean before getting off; another boxing up a board game she probably didn’t leave out; a dorm resident helping clear out her floor when her Resident Manager was sick; a wrestler staying behind to clean a mat; another student helping carry cardboard boxes to recycling.

That’s the community I want to be a part of, where “everybody does” the good things. And let me tell you, I’m grateful for people who do help me out, who are willing to pick up my messes, and who don’t hold my shortcomings against me–because I’ve inadvertently left behind my fair share of napkins, or coffee mugs, or dirty cups.

So please, next time I ask you to do something like pick up a napkin, don’t say, “It’s not mine.” Remember that you are part of this community. And remember how much others have done for you. Then stoop down and pick up that breakfast bar wrapper on the way to church.

We’re in this life together.

Aaron Butt
Director of Student Affairs

The Principal’s Office announced today that Dylan C. has been named “Student of the Week.”

In his first year at Oak Hill Academy, Dylan is a junior from Georgia. He is a member of OHA’s  Gold Basketball Team. Dylan was nominated for Student of the Week honors with these observations: “He always brings a positive attitude to class. He helps out whenever asked and tries to be a good role model for the other students. Dylan is a good example of someone who tries to bring the community together, and he has done a solid job of embodying our other core values.”

Students are regularly nominated and chosen by the faculty and staff for making notable contributions to Oak Hill Academy campus life.

Congratulations to Dylan!