If you’d told thirteen-year-old Georgie Cavanagh that one day she’d be living on a farm in Central West New South Wales, raising children with her farmer husband while running an internationally recognised luxury linen brand, she would never have believed you.
After all, Georgie was a Melbourne girl through and through.
Growing up in the inner suburbs, her world revolved around school, sport, shopping and city life. Rural Australia barely featured.
Everything changed when her parents suggested she spend Year 9 boarding at a regional Victorian school.
Like many teenagers, Georgie thought she was simply signing up for an exciting adventure. What she couldn’t see at the time was that those twelve months would quietly influence almost every chapter that followed.
Surrounded by country students, Georgie discovered friendships built on authenticity, weekends spent on farms and a lifestyle completely different to the one she’d always known. She stayed at that boarding school until the end of high school, and all of those experiences continued to influence her long after she returned to city life.
Following school she completed a degree in public relations, worked in media, moved from Melbourne to Sydney and eventually co-founded luxury linen brand Carlotta & Gee. Starting with little more than belief in their product and a handful of pre-orders from friends, the business has grown into an internationally recognised Australian brand found in beautiful homes and boutique accommodation around the world.
Listening to Georgie reflect, one theme emerged again and again.
Boarding school taught her adaptability.
It gave her confidence to embrace unfamiliar situations, move cities, back herself professionally and keep saying yes to opportunities she hadn’t planned.
Those same qualities would later help her navigate another unexpected chapter – falling in love with a farmer and making the move to rural New South Wales.
Today, Georgie is experiencing boarding from a completely different perspective.
She’s now a mother.
As her own children grow, conversations about education are no longer theoretical. They are becoming part of her family’s future, and she openly reflects on how grateful she is to have experienced boarding herself.
It’s a thoughtful reminder that boarding school isn’t simply about academic opportunity.
For many young people, it’s where independence begins, lifelong friendships are formed and confidence quietly takes root.
Sometimes those experiences don’t reveal their significance until years later.
And sometimes, as Georgie’s story beautifully demonstrates, they lead you to a life you never imagined – but wouldn’t change for the world.
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
