Written by Luke Gibson
I didn’t do very well in Year 12. Driving around with friends in a beaten-up 1964 Toyota Corona during free periods was far more important than studying. And university had never been on my radar.
Over the last 35 years, I ended up studying various courses, from journalism and screenwriting to finance and hospitality. My work history was wide-ranging, and I’d developed a fantastic skillset. Yet something was missing.
Apart from some really important skills I’d acquired, including being extremely spatially aware and recognising when folks I knew had recently had a haircut, I was a great listener. I was always consciously aware that I developed rapport with people easily and immediately, and before too long, strangers had unloaded their life stories to me.
I finally decided to enrol in an online Diploma in Counselling course through TAFE, completing it in just one year throughout 2024. The pathway then became apparent, and after much research, where I discovered 39 universities offered the Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) and 15 had an online version, I enrolled part-time with Charles Sturt University.
It was a happy coincidence that there was a campus in Port Macquarie, where I’d moved to from Melbourne with my family at the start of 2023. Having never been involved in the university world, I was clueless. I had to Google what undergraduate meant (that’s me, apparently) and get my head around having a HECS debt for the first time.
Before I knew it, orientation happened, and although I wasn’t required to attend the campus, I attended anyway, to at least look at the library and the gym, visit the multiple stalls and grab a free sausage on bread.
Aged 52, I was set up to begin my university journey. “An Introduction to Research, Ethics and Reasoning” was my chosen subject for session one, and I felt so fortunate to have a lecturer who was always approachable, was incredibly patient with my many questions and passionate and engaging.
Throughout session one, I’d learned how essential it was to plan my study time each week and the importance of setting up a viable study space, either in my office or outside on the deck. I was taught words that had never entered my vocabulary, like ontology and epistemology, learned how to submit assignments using APA style and took on some great constructive feedback from the markers.
With the course credits from my Counselling Diploma, I only have to complete 16 of the 24 units that make up this course to finish the first three years full-time equivalent. One subject down; 15 to go!!
Charlie blog is a SSAF funded initiative.
