William Savage grew up in Kyabram with his parents and brothers Tom (Year 9) and Oliver (aged three) and commenced at GVGS in 2016.

“It was a good introduction to all these new people you’ve just met,” he says of Year 5 camp to Sovereign Hill. “You get to have some fun dressing up and a lot of the people I connected with then are some of my closest friends today.”

One of the things William has focused on in his final year of high school is getting the right balance between work and play.

“You’re constantly trying to stay dedicated to your studies and find a heathy mix between school, social activities and sport,” he says. “Sometimes you need to say no to a footy game because you need to study, but then other times you know you need to make time to play a game because you need a break and a run around. We won the ICCES Senior Football Premiership this year and it was great to be able to bond with the boys through that. For a lot of us in the team it was our last year playing, so it was nice to be able to end with a win.”

William looks back on his 13 years of schooling with a sense of achievement, knowing that all the puzzle pieces are finally coming together to form a complete picture of his primary and secondary education.

“All the relationships you’ve made over the years with your teachers and friends and the hours of work you’ve put in, now you get to finally see what it’s all accumulated to,” he says. “Everyone tells you how fast it’ll go and you don’t believe them until you’re looking at your last couple of days of school, knowing it’ll all be over soon. It’s a bittersweet feeling to know you’ve come this far and it’s almost time to move on to something new.”

Next year, William plans to study either commerce or law at Adelaide University and live on campus at St Mark’s College.

“I was looking at all the different course options and places I could go and Adelaide really stood out to me,” he says. “People say Adelaide is like a country town and a city mixed together, so I think it’ll be a good middle ground for me. I’ll get to enjoy the city life, but it won’t be too busy.”