My story as an Ormondian is not a typical one. But most Ormondians don’t have typical stories.
Perhaps that is the essence of the beautiful diversity that is nestled into every crevice of the college’s sandstone architecture. Ormond has always been a place that nurtured difference and celebrated individuality.
Antonia and her sister Christiania with a stall they set up outside the Lodge
My story is that of a child who grew up in the amazing, enriching, and wonderful community of a college. In a month’s time, I will turn 18. It’s been four years since I left Ormond but last week I put in my own college application, down here in Tasmania, the place my family now call home. It’s very funny to tour colleges, knowing as much about the way they work as the students on the GC taking you around their own campus.
Growing up at a college is an experience like no other. The first time I visited Ormond’s breathtaking grounds I was only a tiny child, having just had my fifth birthday. The following year my dad would be returning to the college for the third time in his life and my mum, my sister, myself, and our dog Meta would all be coming with him. First my dad had been an undergraduate student at the college. It had been at Ormond that he and my mum fell in love and in those very halls they got married. Later my dad had returned to the college as chaplain and now he would be taking up the role as Master.
Since I started school, I have had a different experience of the world to my peers. But despite the difference, my experience as a child on Ormond’s expansive grounds, isn’t something I would trade for anything. No other child I knew had a dining hall like Hogwarts where they could eat anytime they liked. No other child I knew got to go to conversations about ethics and philosophy. No other child I knew got to wear a red, yellow, and black top and go watch burly teenagers on the cusp of manhood beat each other up in rugby. Ormond was an amazing place to be a child. My sister and I could roam around after dark, chasing possums and exploring the college’s secrets, all the while knowing we were safe behind the sturdy black iron gate that guards Ormond’s majestic driveway.
Antonia and Christiania being made honourary members of the Students’ Club
But perhaps what stays with me more dearly than the architecture or the academics, is the people I met, in my time at Ormond. To all the staff and students who cared for me at Ormond; thank you. Being around such amazing people for nine of the most formative years of my life changed me in so many ways. It taught me so much about the world and how vast and wonderful it is. Ormond also taught me that at the end of the day, no matter how wide the world, if you have a place, you feel a sense of belonging to, you will always have somewhere to come home.
While sometimes the world of young adults and academics could be confusing to my young mind, it was one that fascinated me, and it is with no doubt that I can say that my childhood experiences of living in a college – of living at Ormond – have profoundly impacted my life. If it weren’t for the richness of my childhood at Ormond, I may not have found one of my greatest passions in life, writing. Writing stories of people and the connections between them that shape their lives.
Antonia and her sister giving farewell speeches as they prepared to depart the College in 2017.
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Every Ormondian has their own unique experience of College life, and their own story to tell. Share your favourite story with us.
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