Stephen Bolliger
During my five years at NSBH, as a shy skinny little bloke, I made virtually no impression on the life of the school and certainly none on its academic traditions. My reports were peppered with "fair" and "very fair". However, I don't think I was scarred by the experience and even quietly enjoyed myself on occasions. Anyway, I managed to get into Sydney Uni where I acquired an Arts degree.
Then followed a few years with Qantas in their Personnel Dept, but more importantly my marriage to Kathrine, the start of a long and very happy relationship.
We soon left corporate life and went off to travel around Europe for a couple of years. Ah happy days!
On our return I did a Dip Ed, and after a brief stint teaching in Sydney, we headed bush. I never felt very happy with life in the suburbs and relished the opportunity to live in the country and to raise our child-to-be there.
I taught English and History for a year at Gungagai High and then became a Teacher Librarian, which calling I pursued for the rest of my Departmental career at Gundagai and Tumut High.
At home we lived "The Good Life" on our small farm, producing our own meat, milk, fruit and veg and at the same time building a house around ourselves. Government subsidised hippies!
Life on the land and in a small rural community suited us all very well, however our daughters' educational needs necessitated a move to Orange where I joined the staff of Kinross Wolaroi School as Teacher Librarian and my daughters were enrolled.
We missed the farm but had great pleasure renovating our Edwardian house and being part of a larger community.
When our daughters left home I felt it was time to try something completely different and entering the commercial world, I started my own small business (nothing to do with education). A bit scary to start with but going OK now.
We also moved again, to a small plot in the Southern Highlands.
I enjoyed being a School Librarian all those years but our real pleasures in life have been agricultural and constructional so I often wonder if the academic milieu of NSBH was the best start for a very practical soul (I think we did woodwork once a fortnight).