Written by Hannah Porter
Being tasked with writing this article really gave me pause, because up until now I’ve enjoyed responding to the personal aspect of ‘why’ with novelties like; scrubs (TV show, not the clothing), the money, my husband has to call me Dr, I was bored…
In reality, those answers disguised a somewhat painful truth that I had gone through a massive upheaval in my personal life and I had spent a lot of time reassessing who I was and who I wanted to be.
In my final year of high school I was keen on being a surgeon or a vet (or a fighter pilot in the airforce!) but took the easy road of teaching instead.
I was lucky that I really enjoyed my career and made so many wonderful connections during my decade in the classroom, but I knew it wasn’t going to be my forever.
I returned to the idea of medicine/anatomy once I’d found my feet again but was looking at a physiotherapy course.
And that is where I guess the personal ‘why’ and why of through Charles Sturt University, Orange, came to cross.
Being a Charles Sturt Alumni, it came up on my socials that Charles Sturt was partnering with another university to bring the Doctor of Medicine course to Orange.
I actually remember the tingling of excitement when I first read that.
That was just over an hour from my home and my family. That wasn’t in Sydney or hours commute away.
That was doable.
The UCAT exam registrations closed that night, and i’m glad it did because that meant I HAD to act and I HAD to get the ball rolling, or not.
Charles Sturt doesn’t just talk the talk of being focused on producing rural doctors. We’re known and supported individually and have the options of choosing wonderful clinical schools all across rural NSW to complete our clinical years.
In a course where you could be a number in Sydney behind a computer screen, we develop genuine connections with our lecturers that we see face-to-face every single day.
There’s laughter, there’s tears, there’s coffee dates and plenty of carry on.
There are students just like me, from farms, from small towns, with a bit of baggage, with some life experience, with a burning desire to be something their community desperately needs.
And just as fantastically, there are students absolutely nothing like me, whose path in life and circumstances are so different and so important to be exposed to & to fall in love with.
Everyone has a story and everyone’s story is important.
Our cohort fostered inclusivity and above all, love.
We are all in this together. How incredibly lucky I am.
