Putting Purple into Proper Perspective – The Experience

Someone once said "You'll only find two kinds of people in this world; those who went to KC and those who wish they had gone", frankly the expression is a bit overambitious but who cares, no one has proven it wrong and no one will.

Kingston College founded in the year 1925 boasts some of the world's most renowned achievers. Students whom have achieved greatness way beyond the previous mark of what greatness used to be. Kingston College students more commonly known as "Fortis" as you may have heard it being belted out across streets, parking lots, in airports, on planes, worldwide by one proud man to a next and as they greet each other and may even get the chance to talk a little you will see how much in common they are. If you have known a Fortis personally, whether related to or you may have just seen him every once in a while you have heard reference being made to the 'purple blood'.
Everyone on hearing about this blood immediately thinks heart, veins and pulmonary arteries but are deceived by their very own ignorance to ‘The Experience’. I say the experience because being a student of the prestigious institution is more than just about learning within the walls of the classrooms and yes school in general facilitates learning in its diversity but KC is a Holistic Renaissance. KC can transform you so much that after 5 years not even your parents of 16 years recognize you which is something I like to refer to as the Fortis Transfusion.

In my tenure at KC I have seen everything that a child can become in his parent's eyes; their biggest dream and their worst nightmare. There is a philosophy that I left KC with, "Only some people get to climb up the ladder of success but everyone gets on the ladder, you choose what to make of the experience." And in my 7 years I have witnessed future heroes getting super zeroes but also the rejected being accepted. Kingston College is a two way street, either the experience makes you or it breaks you into pieces sometimes pieces beyond repair or recognition.

But putting purple into proper perspective, The Experience isn't something you can buy at your local corner store. Some got lucky and some worked hard to have become a part of The Experience but nothing was a mistake. As for me it was destiny and I knew even before I got my Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) result that something big was on its way, and I was delighted to be confirmed with the truth.
Some say we are proud, some will call us pompous, some say patriotic but I say Fortis as the motto recalls "the brave". Those who are on the outside looking in will never understand what The Experience really is as nothing can fully expound the truth but the truth itself and there is only one way to find that out. Some teachers have spent years and still not grasp the atmosphere but others have been abducted into the purple posse. I understand those who don't get the reason for all this because it is indeed difficult to conceive as an outsider. There are plenty details to be explored about Kingston College especially about its history and culture so much so that some persons believe that The Experience I refer to is cult-like. But insiders; Fortis and the posse will tell you this is not so because even though we seem so unbreakable together and uniformed there are divergent views and lingering differences on the inside. What the ‘purple blood’ is; is a rare and unprecedented spirit that drives us to rally around each other whenever there is a call; Champs, Manning Cup, Schools’ Challenge Quiz etc. With the multitudinous support of the purple power it is almost divine, like nothing is impossible to achieve. I have been influenced by this power, so I share this with familiarity.

“FORTIS CADERE CEDERE NON POTEST”- The brave may fall but never yields stands significant in the minds of everyone who have been impacted by The Experience independent of how long ago the impact was made. The blood runs endlessly and the spirit still lives inside of us.