after dinner speech @ Framlingham College
I was delighted to be asked to speak to school leavers at Framlingham College by one of my former Directors of Rugby turned schoolmaster Nick Gandy.
We had a lot of fun catching up, on and off stage where, rather than anything too formal, Nick interviewed me after dinner and we led the students through my various adventures and endeavours including:
how I managed my academic work and my sporting commitments as a schoolboy
being selected by a Premiership Rugby Academy and what that entailed
going to university rather than pursuing full-time rugby after school
juggling an English Literature degree with my various rugby commitments
turning pro upon graduation and my experiences playing in the UK, Australia and France
retiring from rugby and writing and self-publishing my first book
my burgeoning TikTok stardom
The pupils are at a liminal moment, where they’re about to move on to the next stage of their lives and while various other things were going on before it was my turn to speak, I had all sorts of ideas about what advice to give them. Once I was sat up there, I found myself just presenting my experiences and leaving them to draw their own conclusions.
I’m not their teacher, I’m just a storyteller. So I told them a story.
We had a great evening, the pupils claimed to enjoy the talk and they were fantastic company afterwards.
“I have known Ben for a number of years and he recently came to our school to speak at a House Dinner. He spoke about his varied experiences from school to his current projects. He was tremendous value and importantly made time to speak to all of the boys after the event had finished. I would wholeheartedly recommend him.”