Kelly's World

My career goal is to join the police service, eventually winding up in the forensic science division. To clarify, walking the beat and arresting the baddies doesn’t interest me one bit. Nope, it’s all about the science and of discovering a story from little pieces of evidence. It has totally fascinated me since the day in grade 11 when we studied forensic science in class. I was hooked. I would take my text book home and read ahead, studying every single word over and over until it was imprinted into my brain. I’ve never been that nerdy before, and it was a first for me. I can still explain about rifling marks and blood splatter analysis, or the Locard exchange principle. It’s the only class I have ever received an A+ in.

When I graduated high school, I planned to spend a year being a stupid teenager, spending all night partying and sleeping in all day. I was bored within a matter of months, and took up part time TAFE classes in subjects that were pathetically easy. How to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point. Yawn. I did it with three of my friends, and I had finished the class in only a few days (as it was work at your own pace). I was still bored. So I quit my casual waitressing job at a cafe and got a job doing a full time business administration traineeship. That was in 2002. 8 years later, and here I am, still working for the same company. I never ended up going to university, instead working my way through the ranks at the company to where I’m now responsible for software support and support software administration. I wish they’d give me those titles, and a payrise.

My employers are aware of my career goals though. It took a little bit for me to be honest with them, and when I finally explained they were glad to hear it. They had been worried why I wasn’t pushing for promotions, and questioning whether I had any ambition or not. They’re totally supportive with my goals, and know that one day I plan on leaving. Almost 5 years ago now I completed my studies to join the police force; all that remained was my fitness. I was lazy, and did nothing about it. My goal stayed in my wish list, and I carried on floating around, doing whatever took my fancy that particular day. Until two years ago, when I gave myself a bit of a mental slap. I realised I was mid 20′s, and still hadn’t made a serious move towards getting in. I started training, and then did my knee.

It took a year of physiotherapy, but I finally recovered from my knee reconstruction. I started training and I lost weight (14kg to date since last September). My fitness was better than ever before, and then bad luck struck again. At the end of last month I went for a jog one day, came home and within half an hour found I could barely stand on my leg. It turns out I’m due for more physio and rehabilitation, as one of my muscles on the inside of my thigh is incredibly weak. Basically, my kneecap is getting displaced when I exercise; it’s almost like trying to work out with a dislocated kneecap – not fun. Hence, once again I find myself in a position where I’m unable to do any serious training – no running. It’s pushed me back again with my attempts of trying out for the police force and while I’ve had some setbacks, I am still driven towards getting there. No matter how long it takes me.

So once again, I find myself waiting it out, and craving for some mental stimulation. Along came Jo, who pointed out I could do uni flexible learning from home. She sent me a link, where I did a few searches and found this course, Introduction to Forensic Science. PERFECT!

Unfortunately, financially I’m not currently in a position to pay upfront for uni. Mat and I are looking to pay off some debts that we have accrued, and put ourselves in a better position so that we can move out. We need to be free of enough debt that we won’t feel the strain when I join the police service and become reduced to a trainee pay for the 6 months of training at the police academy. Hence, it might be the case that in order to do this uni study I need to consider a HECS debt. It kinda goes against my attempts to pay off debt though doesn’t it? Hmm.

The uni provided a fees calculation as per the following:

The figure I am mainly concerned with is “Fees per course” – only an average of $531. I’m only looking at doing one course this semester, and I’m pretty ashamed I can’t even spare $500. Such is life I guess.

Right now my brain is switched off, so I haven’t investigated too much (I blame it on recovering from a sickness during the week that left me extremely fatigued for days). I’ll have to look into it seriously before the cut off date though, and talk to Mat and some family members to get their opinion. However, if you’re a reader of this blog and you’ve done the uni/HELP (hecs?) thing before, I would LOVE if you could offer me some feedback. What’s involved in getting a HECS debt, how much can the repayments add up to every pay? Was it worth it, or should I just save up the cash and do the courses at a later time. Anything, anything you could give me, I will be eternally grateful.

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