Sometimes I feel like I’m still that teenager who graduated high school, like I don’t -feel- different but then I go to uni with students who have just graduated high school and suddenly I feel old. It’s been over 10 years since I left school and getting back into study has been a challenging and eye opening experience. I forgot how much I loved to ‘book learn’. Years 11 and 12 at school burnt me out. By the time I got there, I had no drive; didn’t help back then that didn’t want to go to uni so high marks were not needed of me. I pretty much stayed on because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But going through the HSC really put me off study and showed in the years after that, as previous to my uni foundation course I had not actually finished a course of study. I’ve started plenty but it petered out when I realised I had no actual interest in doing that as a career.
Being back university has been wonderful, it’s great to use my brain in a way that feels rusty and it’s definitely been stressful trying to think academically again and I think somehow I found myself in a degree I’m really enjoying even though it was not my intended program when I first embarked on this journey.
But being around lots of school leavers has got me feeling ancient. I’ve grown so much since I left school, I’ve learnt many life lessons, had many different a experiences and I feel that is making me appreciate my tertiary journey a whole lot more. However, it’s not something I’ve really noticed about myself until now.
Now I can compare with people fresh out of high school with the whole wide world in front of them. And it’s refreshing.
Kathryn Prosser 