8. Kurunjang

Melton provided the freedom a young family needed in the early 1990’s. It had affordable housing, all the basic facilities and schooling fit for all levels of education. I was enrolled at Kurunjang Secondary College, which was to our information, the best public high school in Melton.

The first day of high school was supposed to be the scariest day of my life. I was starting at a new school with people I didn’t know, teachers I had never heard of, in a huge maze of portable classrooms. Wow this was gonna be difficult.

My first day will always be remembered for one thing. I was the only one to turn up at the school! With a huge bag full of every school book we bought, I turned up to school unsure of what subjects I had on day one. My bag weighed a tonne and I was ready to learn.

After walking around for about 10 minutes, I decided the office was where I had to go. A friendly female teacher with a smirk on her face, politely told me that the Primary School was starting today and that high school was due to begin tomorrow. How embarrassing!

I rang home and no-one was there. I suppose Mum and Pop were still at the Primary School dropping my sister off for her first day. I had an idea. I was going to stand out the front of the high school and wave down the green ford station wagon as it made its way back home. If I missed it, then all I had to do was get back to the office, re-dial home and hope to God that someone was going to be there!

To my luck, Pop’s car cruised past the front of Kurunjang and I flagged it down. I literally was all dressed up with no place to go, except back home to relax one more day. I did feel like a moron. I mean who turns up to school one day too early? Maybe a day late, but then again I was a nerd and really couldn’t wait for school to start.

At 6:30am the next morning my alarm once again woke me from my slumber. It was a Thursday morning and only two days separated me from my first weekend of homework. My school bag was no lighter than yesterday as I wanted to be prepared for whatever subjects came on that day. The funny thing was that no-one else in the school had the same idea as me. They simply had a folder full of blank paper and their school diary. How was I supposed to know?

My first day involved Art, Humanities, Graphics and Maths. I hated art. I couldn’t draw to save myself. I was a word king, not a picture guru. That and my art teacher was a real bitch. All she cared about was drinking her coffee and yelling “shut-up” at the top of her voice. I never had a teacher like this before. In my last school I was always known as a goodie-goodie and teacher’s pet. A new start meant I had to earn this label all over again. I certainly wasn’t going to bother with art. I’d manipulate my way to an A somehow, but it certainly wasn’t going to be by be-friending this teacher.

By the weekend I had racked up about 3,000 hours of homework. I always did my homework, came to class prepared and never fell behind in any subject. I was dedicated to my school work and took no short-cuts on even the smallest details. This was my way of proving to my teacher’s that I was here to learn and not to muck around.

I didn’t make any friends in the first few weeks, but after a while I started to notice those kids who were as isolated as me in both the classroom and yard. It was time to introduce myself to anyone who cared to listen.

Not a lot of people know this, but I made a best friend at school that lasted for many years. This red-headed, tall sports star was neglected just like I was by the others. He too was the oldest child in his family and also the first to start high school. Although not a complete nerd, he certainly tried his best with every subject. The fact that he was sporty, friendly and tried hard in all of his subjects would mean we would get along fine. Robert Doody and I became good friends in late February of 1994.

My mid year report at school was a shambles. I was devastated at the fact of getting 2 B’s and a D amongst all of the remaining perfect A’s. I was a straight A student so any marks below that alerted concern to my parents. The two B’s were in Art and the D in textiles. That’s right, textiles. Quite simply, Leeroy and sewing machines didn’t see eye to eye. That, and I made the teacher cry once because I cut a huge roll of material the wrong way. You would think this woman had to pay for the material out of her own pocket. God help us all.

The highlight of Year 7 at Kurunjang was making the school football team for Year 7’s and 8’s. I was tiny, thin and had no natural ability with football – but man could I run! After spending 3 quarters and 20 minutes on the bench, my coach finally let me on the ground. When your school is 0 and the opposition are about 250, it’s not the greatest feeling running on the ground thinking you can make a difference.

It was absolutely pelting down rain, was about 7 degrees and we were kicking into a howling gale. After yet another goal was scored against us, the ball came back to the centre. Our ruck was mauled and got a free kick. He belted the ball on his boot only to travel about 15 metres – as I said, this was a howling gale! To our luck, it landed on the chest of Doody who turned around and ran. He bashed the ball well inside the 50 metre line and it tumbled to about 15 metres out from goal. As the ball hadn’t been down there the whole game, there was no-one within site. It was a foot race between me and a dude from the other team. Remember, I had no ability, but I could run.

We sprinted nothing short of 30 metres side by side toward the ball. I shut my eyes as I slid to kick the ball off the ground. Mud covered me from head to toe. As I opened my eyes I was past the goal line, just short of the fence. I wiped the mud from my face and turned around to see the goal umpire waving a single white flag. I had kicked a point! We were off zero finally! The siren sounded and our team all ran down the field to pick me up and carry me off the field. Despite having my shorts wedged fair and square up my backside, totally freezing and covered in mud, I was the hero that got us to 0.1.1. Apparently this was the first time our Junior footy team had scored in years. What a highlight! What a crap team! HAHA!

We lost by 258 points, but memories of that day will always bring a smile to my face. It was quite simply the greatest ever point scored by a Kurunjang Junior footballer.

Well that’s my story – and I’m sticking to it!