Photo by Ryan Wilson
My first year of being back at work and in school is done. I haven’t really had much time to reflect because of all of the work travel I’ve done in the last two weeks – Melbourne and then Jakarta a week and a half later.
In retrospect, it’s been a tough year. I went freelance last September, which is a completely different mindset to working permanent and started the first year of my nutrition course a week later. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get things right and try to balance work, study, family and social life. The wheels fell off a bit in March when I moved from working three days to five and into a much more high pressured job. Now that I’m back to working three days, I realise that I’m not only very fortunate to have the option to be part-time and freelance, but that a less pressured schedule is necessary for me to keep my sanity and do well in my course.
The last time I was a full time student was in 2004, when I completed an M.A. in Marketing. In the intervening years, it seems that the intensity of studying and how I, as a visual person, need to study, seemed to have dimmed in my mind. For my exams in February and June, I needed to remember how to study and remind myself of the tips and tricks I used to use. Tricks like summarising all of my lecture notes by hand, then going over them in highlighter, then using lots of acronyms and mnemonics to help remember the reams and reams of information. Each time, it was intimidating and I almost psyched myself out.
Going into year two, I feel ready. My passion for nutrition and helping people is still strong and I’m ready to jump in again.