27- Finish my first semester of Uni
I can now finally announce that I FINALLY completed a full semester of Uni! Here is why this is such an achievement that I needed to put on my list!
I remember a time in early highschool when all I chose to listen to was the “get good grades and go to University” speech. Something that I now know absolutely does not define you, but something I held with so much importance of my own identity. When a time came when I was too scared to even step through the school gates most days, resulting in me not completing year 12 I still held onto feeling the need to go down this path.
So after a couple of years of working an unimaginable amount of hours I made that first attempt to study and enrol in University! A Bachelor of Disability and Developmental Education!I had just purchased my first home (but that story is for another day), I had put in place what I needed from my work places to have time to study and I was committed! I thought…. Until that little global pandemic decided to happen in my first month of study and instead of cutting back on work I felt pressured to work more in the toxic environments around me. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t even find where to log into the units and I unenrolled (Until 2 years later I found out I hadn’t unenrolled because I was SO overwhelmed and had to pay the $6,000+ debt that the Uni would not waive).
Attempt one at Uni was not a positive. So along came attempt two in 2022! A Bachelor of Nursing! I’m going to be a Registered Nurse! That is until once again in week one I struggled to sit at a computer without bursting into tears at the thought of trying to navigate the site. The biggest lesson I learnt from this attempt was to actually unenroll this time!
The desire to study was still buzzing inside of me. So along came attempt three in 2023! Psychology! Now surely this is easy and I could do round three. There’s no placements, it’s a three year degree and it is all online. However I think I actually learnt a bigger lesson from this degree. Don’t attempt Uni when you are travelling through Queensland dealing with 28 years of trauma and a relationship breakup. So attempt three stopped right there.
But let’s step into where I am now! Attempt four in 2024! A Bachelor of Social Work! (It is literally only as I am typing right now that I realise each attempt correlates with the year. I promise there will be NO attempt five in 2025!). Now how on earth did this degree happen? Well you see when you are in a safe and supportive environment you will find that the results will be different. After a sneakily little submission on my prior learning I discovered that I had eight units credited! One full year of study is already done! Also, it brings me that step closer to where I know my strength is.
It turns out that referencing is terrible, I strongly dislike structure and uni requires a lot of your time, energy and money! It has also been a huge hurdle to learn and accept that over 50% is still a pass and that I absolutely CAN do it! Finishing that first semester has also taught me that I have some people around me who are happy to help if I just ask.
So that is one little semester down and enough to prove to me that if I want to I can do it. I’m still not set on what path I want to go down, but this degree opens that door to opportunity. So maybe I can have that school counsellor role one day that little me dreamed of for many years.
See you in 2026 as a qualified Social Worker!
Positive Mind Waves 