I have decided to set up this blog as a place where I can post my thoughts and feelings about my journey through the world of academia and the impact that studying has on my life. Soooo some background to this ....
I am 43 years old. I am married to Jonathan (aged 48) and the mother of Zach (aged 15 and 11 months). I have been Lynda Sim for 17 years and prior to that I was Lynda Just. Throughout my life I have had a few jobs. I started off working after school and on weekends at the Hong Kong Restaurant in Palmerston North. This became the Seafarers and I worked there until it closed down and became a nightclub. I also worked after school and on Saturday mornings at the Palms Rest home. During the week I helped get the evening meal ready and on Saturdays I helped with the old people and changing the linens and cleaning their teeth duties. My first full time job was with the post office back when the telecom, postal and banking fascilities were all part of one organisation. I worked as a toll operater - a temporary job that ended after 2 years when STD came in and replaced the automatic exchange. At this point I went back to school and got my University Entrance, I did this as an adult student at Queen Elizabeth College. During this time I earned extra cash as a cleaner and working as a kitchen hand at the Dynasty restaurant. Following this I worked for the Motor Registration part of the Post Office and attended the Post Office Stage One clerical training course. After another stretch of unemployment I got a job at Statistics New Zealand and worked there in the Macro Economic Division for a number of years. I finished working there in November/December 1991 and in the new year of 1992 I made my first foray into tertiary education.
My first study adventure was at Victoria College of Wellington where I enrollled myself in Sociology, Social Policy and Education papers. I did okay in Social Policy and Education but Sociology was beyond me. Timetabling was such that I didnt see much point coming into Wellington from Johnsonville so I attended virtually zero lectures and only the required tutorials. Needless to say that was the one paper that I failed. During the first semester Jonathan and I got married and by the end of the year I was pregnant with Zach. And that, I thought, was the end of my University career.
Since then we (Jonathan, Zach and I) have moved to Australia and set up home. I worked for several years at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. got an injury due to overuse syndrome and took a redundancy package.
We have now been back in New Zealand almost two years and Jonathan is back working with Statistics New Zealand. I am not in a position health-wise to look for employment but I no longer want to be sitting at home doing nothing. I was talking to my very wise older sister Debbie who suggested that I consider university studies and said that her daughter, my niece Kristy was going to be studying extramurally through Massey this year and after about 1 hour of thinking about it I decided to give it a go.
So here I am. I am about half way through weekk 3 of my studies. My first assignment was due in today and since I posted it early Saturday it should have gotten there. My next assignment is due next Monday and I have done not much except for the reading and some pretty heavy thinking about the topic. I am going to have to shake my booty on it though because it will need to be posted to get there on time.
Here are the papers I am taking THIS semester:
Social Policy - An Introduction
Social and Community work practices
Language and Communication
Written Communication
Media Studies
So follow the journey if you dare O_O
