It was at a March 2002 camp at the Sydney Academy of Sport and Health where I overheard Steve Jones, who was awarded dux that year, talking about my family.

It was our first of two nights there and we had just finished a full day of kayaking, a lunch of gristly beef patties wedged into stale burger loaves, and a sweaty match of basketball in the waning sun. I was pretending to sleep, worn out and anxious with all the roughhousing of the day, when the conversation turned to the topic of everybody’s families.