Brian May, Liam Payne, Amber Riley and Sheryl Crow

Abdul-Rehman’s back Friday 2nd of June.

Chris, I went to the kind of high school where the cliques were rather well defined. The jocks, beefy and loud would share last night’s scores in front of the gym. The Goths would play Nine Inch Nails on their ghetto blaster in the parking lot. The gamers would sit in the corner of the lunchroom arguing whether Orcs could overpower Dwarves.

If it sounds like an Eighties teen flick – it kind of was.

Every May, a great pantomime would take place: student council elections. The results were almost always a foregone conclusion. There was, after all, a student government clique too. It was a tight group of ridiculously popular girls and boys, and they’d decide who would contest what positions. Upstart challengers were usually crushed at the ballot box.

I had a reputation of being a bit of a political rabble-rouser, but you can still imagine my surprise when Craig and Greg – two certified jocks – walked up to my locker and asked me to manage their campaign for student council president and vice-president. 

I laughed at first, but they were serious and earnest. They cared about the school and, frankly, they had the coolest campaign song: We Will Rock You written by a certain Mr Brian May. I was sold.

"Start a huge, foolish project,” advised the mystic Rumi. “Be like Noah! After all, it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”

Running that campaign might not have been like building an Ark, but there were times when it felt downright pointless. At first, almost everyone sniggered behind our backs.

We campaigned hard, but the lads did one better. They went out of their comfort zone and made friends with the Goths, the Gamers and the misfits like me.

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder,” continued Rumi. “Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd."

On Election Day, Craig and Greg rocked the vote. They were magnanimous winners and asked their opponents to come on the council as well. It was the most successful student council in our school’s history. 

We don’t have to fight an election to make others feel like they matter. Sometimes it’s just a good heart, a good ear – and that uncanny ability to ignore the ones who at first might laugh at you. They’ll come around eventually. Maybe, as the man said, by ‘Shouting in the street you gonna take on the world some day...’