New Course

While I have put my nursing studies on hold I have begun another degree! Crazy...why yes indeed I am!

I was meant to continue my nursing studies at the start of this year, however I didn't feel I would be able to get it done with 2 very young girlies at home. So I decided to put it off another semester...which is due to start in another month or so! However, I have put them on hold again. I decided that it is not really possible to get to labs and pracs when I don't feel right having my daughters babysat or in day care. That's my responsibility! I made the choice to have children, and sacrifices need to be made. I am in no way saying that mums shouldn't work or study, and should dedicate their entire lives to their kids, but for me, this is my choice...and I currently choose to invest in them.

However, I did feel the need to occupy my mind with something a bit more than the lyrics to Wiggles songs. So, I am currently studying externally through Griffith University - a Writing Degree. I am majoring in both Creative Professional Writing and also Journalism. I enjoy writing (hence the existence of this blog) and it is one of the things that I feel I am (somewhat) talented in.

I have enjoyed my units so far and am getting some positive feedback. For my creative writing unit we have, for example, 7 writing tasks to complete every 3 weeks. We are given different topics and are then required to post them onto a forum where other students in the course can comment - it's kind of like a blog! We also have 3 major creative writing pieces we need to submit. In my other unit we need to read 5 well-known pieces of literature and have 3 major assignments and final exam on the books we've read. I am currently reading, Antony & Cleopatra by Shakespeare, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown, Medea by Euripides, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.....BIG I know! And as you can probably guess, the theme for the study period is Love and Marriage!

I am really enjoying it, and I am also enjoying getting feedback on people who are reading some of my written assignments. I'll attach a piece I wrote on the 12th of June - the topic was a 'Sensory Experience - a Day out with Friends'

"The sun streaming through the canopy of trees above, sting my eyes. The soft and slightly damp grass beneath, with toes wriggling between the long strands. The weight of her body upon my chest, I can feel her body rising and falling with each breath. I can hear her sucking her fingers and humming a little tune she has made up on the spot. We can smell meat and onions cooking on the barbie which only causes our stomachs to rumble even more. My daughter wrapped up in my arms, enjoying the warmth we give each other on a cool winter afternoon. The sounds of friends talking away and kids playing on the nearby play set. I tune them all out just to listen to my daughters breathing, and continue to feel the rising and falling. In. Out. In. Out."

I'm not really into writing descriptively, and I found myself feeling a bit try hardish with using descriptive words...but there ya go! It's good to go out of your comfort zone sometimes. To learn new things and develop current talents!