In this article the author responds to Jonathan Silin's article "At a Loss: Scared and Excited", and in doing so, takes up his ideas around the generative potential of loss. She uses these notions of loss to illuminate how, in one diverse school community in Australia, loss, failure and an "awful reputation" have opened up spaces for re-imagining multiple, heterogeneous, (im)possible student subjectivities and have allowed room for seeking out pedagogical practices centred around complexity, connectedness, authenticity and uncertainty.