Dear Mr Holding,
You likely don’t remember, but I was in your Standard 7 (Grade 9) History class many years ago in 1991. Looking back, it seems like yesterday, but also many years ago. I still remember you teaching me about World War 1 and 2 (and I still have my books from that class). Mrs. Lefort was my French teacher that year, and Mr. Dean was Principal.
My experiences at Kloof High, the bonds I made, and the strong education I received have done me well. I have fond memories of Kloof High School and the faculty. Looking at pictures of the school online it seems like not much has changed.
I participated in many after school extracurricular activities which included the Cross Country team, Athletics team, Swimming team, Hockey team, and a few others. I didn’t participate in every year I was at Kloof High. All this (unbeknownst to me at the time) would ultimately help me achieve some incredible things in the years to come. Kloof High instilled discipline and a drive to be successful.
For future students I would say this, I wasn’t the best student in high school. I would rank myself as a 7/10 back then, but sometimes it is about the journey and learning about what you like while getting a good foundation in life. While you may not be getting an A on every test, you are learning nonetheless from experiences and most certainly your failures.
My parents left South Africa in June 1995 for Vancouver, Canada, half-way through my Matric year. I decided to stay in South Africa with a friend who was in my class and finish my Matric rather than starting the year over again in a foreign country. Studying for the Matric finals without a home support structure was difficult, and in retrospect, probably not the best idea. Studying in someone’s spare bedroom with little family support, and managing the stress of life (like getting around because I was not old enough to drive) was the first of many trying times that Kloof High had prepared me for. After 6 months without family, I finished my Matric exams, and the following day I got on a plane for Canada with my friend with whom I had been staying.
Leaving South Africa was difficult. You hear this a lot from immigrants, but living it is way worse than you think. It turns your life upside down. Everything is different from the way you buy groceries, to dealing with getting a driver’s license again (yes you have to start from scratch). You have to rebuild everything.
After traveling for a couple of years, working numerous jobs as a Cashier, Truck Unloader, and Gas Pump Attendant, I finally had enough money to start back into perusing an education. I enrolled in flight school to become a Private Pilot with another South African I had met in Canada. During the day I went to flight school, and at night I worked unloading trucks. It was exhausting, and I had very little sleep back in those days.
I knew I needed to go to College, and after a challenging application process, I enrolled in the Business Administration program at the University of the Fraser Valley just outside of Vancouver, Canada. At that point, I had completed my (PPL) Private Pilot’s License, and part of the reason I enrolled at UFV was that they had a Commercial Pilot program.
Unfortunately, I was not accepted into the Pilot program but was excepted into the Business Administration program. As you can imagine this was a huge disappointment at the time, but looking back was again one of those crazy things that turned out to shape my life in a far better way than I could ever have expected.
I took a pause and weighed up my options. I remember reflecting on my experiences at Kloof High, specifically one time when Mr. Adams (my PE and Geography teacher at the time) met my parents. I am not sure if it was a Parent/Teacher meeting or after school when they picked me up from athletics practice, but I do remember what he said (and my mom was fond of reminding me). He said, “Nicholas has lots of potential, and if he would only put more effort in, he could be not only an incredible student because he is exceptionally smart, but an excellent athlete.”
I decided to enroll privately at a different school for my flight lessons and stay at UFV to obtain my BBA. After continuing to work nights and weekends in low wage jobs, I finally not only got my Canadian Commercial Pilots License but also my Flight Instructor rating. Being a flight instructor was the coolest job anyone had in college. Things were finally coming together, and life was getting easier. I had a good job to pay the bills and tuition, and I was having fun. At the time I also joined the Canadian Armed Forces and spent two years in the infantry until I completed college in 2002.
I worked some odd jobs for a year in business after college (while teaching aviation), and eventually, after 8 years in Canada, I got a job at Honeywell in Detroit, USA.
Finally, life was starting to be kind. It was a long road, but since then, so many things have come my way from having a solid base education I received at Kloof High that still serves me to this day, and the grit and determination I learned there from teachers such as yourself.
I have gone on to graduate top of my class in my MBA program with a perfect GPA, obtained multiple Pilots licenses and Flight Instructor Accreditation in Canada and the USA, acquired Scuba Diving Certifications up to the level of Dive Master, and most recently received a graduate certificate from Harvard in Business Analytics. Most credentials from Harvard are issued just by one school, however, the HBAP program is a combination of Harvard Business School (HBS), the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), an accomplishment that I am still trying to process.
The experiences I have had are nothing short of amazing, I have trained Search and Rescue Pilots out of McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, USA, worked in businesses from Hong Kong to Sao Paulo, lived in multiple countries, been skiing in Colorado, vacations in the Caribbean, cycled the Tour D’ France Alps stages, and flown myself on private aircraft to some of the wildest unimaginable places on earth. Just last year I met the Vice President of the United States Mike Pence, had dinner and attended fundraising events with Congressman Dan Bishop, and met with a number of CEO’s from some of the world’s most well-known companies. My family’s joke is that most people try to collect stamps in their passports of places they go, I, however, collect passports. I probably couldn’t sit down and name all the places I have had the privilege of going.
I continue to be active in the sports arena thanks to the importance of an active lifestyle that was impressed upon me in my high school years. This year I was invited to the cycling Grand Fondo National Championships in July 2020. Last year I finished 4th in the Tour of Georgia, the best-placed non-professional athlete.
I sit writing this to you from one of my homes just outside Charlotte, NC, USA. I have been nothing but fortunate (although it hasn’t always felt that way), sitting on acres of lush green wooded property in a great neighborhood, with my plane parked at the airport down the street. All this is truly a result of the foundations, skills, and education I received at Kloof High School.
My cousins and brother often sit and reminisce about our Kloof High days when we get together up to this day when we meet up in someplace we never thought we would be and a far cry from Kloof.
Unbeknownst to current students (up until now I suppose), I continue to quietly support the school and its students. Most recently I flew to attend an event at Yale University in New Haven, CT to support my fellow Kloof High School students at the Worlds Scholars Cup.
Yours sincerely,
Nicholas Haarhoff
Kloof High School – Class of 1995
