Matt's recollections of St John's College, University of Sydney

St John's is a Catholic residential college on the University campus. When I attended it was a male only domain but has since opened up its doors to female residents as well which has allowed it to take on a different direction and style.

I spent six years at St John's spanning my entire period at the University, and which included my final six months at the College of Law in St Leonard's. From the time I entered in 1989 as a fresh faced 18 year old from Coffs Harbour, to the time I left at 24, prepared to embark on the next uncertain journey in the workforce, St John's had been my home.

St John's is situated on Missenden Road, Camperdown, just down the road from King George V Hospital where I was born. The proximity of my university residence to the place where my life began never failed to impress me. I used to dive into the florist at the hospital to grab a bouquet anytime that we had a big college event and I was preparing to take a lady out, and I always felt as if I was getting on with life and making the best of things, considering it was there that my journey had begun so precariously.

St John's provided me with a place to live outside my family home. As an eighteen year old I was within the protective environment of the collegiate experience, able to forge and create for myself a situation of my own making in my independent way. The success of my ability to do that was solely due to those fellows with whom I shared my college experience.

Being a bloke who is dependent upon others to assist me to get out of bed in the mornings, and to get dressed and showered I was going to need assistance with the basics of life having moved out of home. Fortunately for me Home Care Services have always had willing and able staff to assist with this and during my time at university a wonderful man by the name Yu Song Hong, whom I named Paddy Joe, was my major carer for an hour in the morning and a further hour and a half in the afternoon.

However, when it came to my enjoying the thrills and spills of an undergraduate's lifestyle my mates were the key to that success. Someone always seemed to be on hand to ensure that I had company when I travelled in the dumb-waiter from the kitchen into the grand old dining room. When I needed to attend meetings at St John's or functions at other places and a flight of stairs was in the way there were always strong arms and backs willing to ensure I was involved in the event. And come the end of the day and the time for me to at last tumble into bed I required the help of my peers. Without fail I could ask one of my collegiate mates to lift me out of the wheelchair and place me on the bed. They would then take off my shoes, remove my jeans and shirt, plug the battery charger into my wheelchair and wish me a goodnight before turning out the light.

St John's was the place that firmly set in place the cornerstone of my future.

I was fortunate enough to be elected by the Students' Club to the position of House Secretary in 1991 and House President in 1993. Like many colleges during those years there had been ructions between the student body and the administration. Unlike St Andrews College where the Principal left after being declared a heretic by his Church, our difficulties remained internal. And it is true to say that my election to the position of House President was based largely on a determination to create and bolster the Students' Club autonomy within the framework of the College organisation. During my time I made mistakes, I did things about which I am very proud and I enjoyed the thrills and spills of an undergraduate's life. Without qualification the gratitude in my heart to those who had enabled me to thrive socially and academically within those hallowed halls will never be dimished.

After leaving St John's my mates from those days have remained a huge part of my life. I have lived with them as flatmates; I have stood by a number of them as a groomsman or bestman at their weddings; and I have delighted in the birth and development of their children.

My love of travel is well documented and in this area of my life Johnsmen have played a huge part as well.

In 1993 I went to the Hong Kong Rugby 7's competition. It was my first trip overseas without my parents and it was made possible because Patrick Bannerman from college wanted to travel with me.

Then in 1998 when I embarked on a huge trip to London, Ireland and France for six weeks I took with me Richard Lentfer, a qualified nurse who had begun his studies in my penultimate year at university. And when he and I travelled we caught up with Mark Bamford and his wife Michelle Walker, who were working in London for a year; and Xav de Viana and his wife Jennifer O'Connell who live in London. Both Bamford and De Viana had been freshers with me at St Johns during which time our lifelong friendships were forged and along with their wives we explored Ireland and Paris.

I have enjoyed further trips overseas. In 2001 I went to Spain solely due to the generosity of a fellow Johnsman, Juan Varela and his wife Annie Henchman, with whom I travelled. Then in 2004 I went to New York, where another Johnsman, Nic Hyde, and his wife Torie, opened up their apartment for me to share, and to Minneapolis where another great Johnsman mate, Tony Weinhaus and his wife Maryn, hosted me for a fantastic ten days in the Midwest of the USA.

It is over ten years since I left the hallowed halls, my involvement with the current student body and organisation is all but non-existent as the pressing matters of my current interests sweep me up, however, as we say once a Johnsman always a Johnsman, or now, as the case might be, Johnswoman.

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