What is a moment that made you realize you were stronger than you thought?
The COVID lockdowns were a hard time for student accommodation providers.
In one sense, we saw it coming before it hit in full force. We had protocols in place early. Then the university sent out an email saying classes would move online the following Monday.
A silence descended on the campus.
People made decisions quickly. Some students went home to rural towns. Some booked flights overseas, not knowing whether they would be able to return. Some had no homes to go to. Some were afraid to leave. Some were afraid to stay.
We had to make decisions just as quickly.
Do we stay open or close? Do we keep staff employed or lay people off? How do we support families who no longer wanted to pay for accommodation? How do we care for students who had nowhere else to go?
Government assistance made a difference. So did staff generosity. Some staff voluntarily reduced their work hours by one day a week. It was not easy, but somehow we worked our way through it.
We had always said we were a community. During COVID, that claim was tested. Community could no longer mean events, dinners, or the ordinary warmth of shared life. It had to mean care under pressure. It had to mean clear communication when people were anxious. It had to mean staying open for students who needed a home.
Towards the end of the second lockdown in 2021, we had our first case of COVID in the college. Four people tested positive after one student contracted it at work. The Department of Health placed them in quarantine for two weeks. About twenty close contacts were quarantined separately. It was a logistical nightmare.
People needed to be kept safe, supported, informed, and fed. Protocols had to be followed. Families had to be reassured. Staff had to know what to do. Residents had to be protected without being made to feel abandoned.
The public health team was fantastic. Our staff were exemplary. People carried meals, made phone calls, checked details, answered questions, solved problems, and kept going.
As principal of the college, the stress was extraordinary. The hours were long. There were sleepless nights, disputes to resolve, decisions to make, and messages to write. Every email mattered. Every conversation mattered. Communication became part of the care.
But we did it.
We kept people safe. We kept the college open. We kept staff employed. We provided a home for more than fifty international students who would have been at risk of homelessness without it.
I remember coming home after one extremely long day. Everyone had been communicated with. The protocols were working. Students were safe. People were able to keep studying.
I walked in the door, hugged my wife, and immediately burst into tears.
Until that moment, I had simply been doing the next necessary thing. Making the next decision. Writing the next message. Answering the next call. Solving the next problem.
Only afterwards did I realise how much strength it had taken.
And it was not only my strength. It was strength discovered in community, care, communication, and endurance. It was the strength of staff who gave more than they had to give. It was the strength of residents who adapted to uncertainty. It was the strength of a community that chose not to disappear when life became difficult.
COVID taught me that sometimes strength is found in the shared work of staying faithful under pressure.
Looking back, I am still astounded by what was achieved.
There was more in us than we knew.
The Afterword 
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