Graduation

I'm officially educated. Last night marked my graduation ceremony, and my reward of: BA Professional Writing and Publishing. I'm proud I have worked hard for the last three years to get a degree, and while the academic achievement is of high regard, there is a lot more of my university experience that I have been thankful for.

I feel a lot of people don't use their time at university to the biggest advantage. Of course, you're encouraged within a writing degree to actively engage in practice, volunteering, and trying to get published, which luckily I was, but the friend you make at uni are a vital part of the whole experience. Luckily, I've been part of a huge crew of uni friends, from day one of orientation, to meeting in the last semester that have made my time at Curtin amazing. All loosely linked to similar degrees with different majors, we all have displayed our hate for deadlines, love for the tav, but deep down, our passion for what we do, and what potentially we can do in the future. Unfortunately, not all people get to be within such a large group of close uni friends as I've been lucky to be a part in, and I encourage everyone not to turn down an offer to socialise with those you study with.



I was part of the writing team for the Guild's Grok Magazine, and I wrote last year for the Australian Uni Games and through these experiences I've learnt that I'm sure this is the area I want to be working in, or working towards in the future.

Given also, the nature of our degrees, it is the kind of industry you have to be extremely passionate, committed, driven and idealistic to achieve some form of successful future career. We are not strangers to how limited job opportunities in this industry can be, specifically in Perth, and while some of us are leaving, and some have already left for jobs, I think we'll always have our time at Curtin to share.

In some ways it is sad that we will probably not all get to be together again, considering how many are moving away, but I feel truly privileged to have been part of a group with such a wide variety of talent, humour, loyalty and intelligence. While we've certainly had our teenage dirtbag moments, I value every single experience I've had at Curtin and have seen us all grow up from our time there.



Uni gives you this amazing, opportunistic feeling that you can strive for what you wish and you can end up in professional positions you've not even considered yet. I believe we will all go far; we all have the right and potential to create our dream jobs, and be successful in them. Whether it's writing, broadcasting, producing, editing, or any other profession linked to Media, Culture & Creative Arts, or what leads you to something else, I'm proud to say that I don't think any of our degrees will go wasted just hanging on a wall, but will make us the journalists, professional writers, movie makers and everything else we've always wanted to be.