I never wanted to be a journalist. As a kid from Orange, growing up young and regional, our options were limited. In Year 12, or we still may have called it Sixth Form back then, two things happened.
Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading All articles from our website The digital version of Today's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox All articles from the other regional websites in your area Continue We were taken to the local government service centre and shown how to fill out the appropriate forms to qualify for "benefits". Or a few of us "smarter ones" were handed a booklet from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Centre and left to flounder.
Well maybe there were three options; several girls I went to school with were mothers by the time we were 18. Nevertheless, I found myself at the then Canberra College of Advanced Education in 1985 hoping to become a school teacher. It was an appropriate career option for a young girl from the bush.
The only reason I came to Canberra was because I was madly in love with a boy from Tumut called Craig Wise, the captain of a nearby school's rugby league team. He was off to Canberra to become a teacher, so I was too. (If anyone knows where he is, shout out.
) Goodbye, farewell, amen. Picture Shutterstock Once I was at CCAE (it will never be UC in my mind) the whole world opened up. I didn't even know ANU existed until I got to Canberra.
Back then the UAC book didn't include all tertiary in.