Kylie Hammond

I grew up in Goulburn in regional NSW with my parents and younger brother. I’ve lived in a few different places, including Sydney, London and Dublin, but I’m now living in Wollongong with my husband, toddler and two dogs.

I was the first person in my family to go to university. My parents were very keen for us to gain a higher education and I never really considered other options. It felt like the natural next step for me.

Being first in family and moving to Sydney for university was quite a difficult transition. No-one else from my school went to my uni, so I really didn’t know anyone. I was lucky to live on-campus for the first year though, and I made a lot of new friends quickly in my college.

But, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, and was without a sense of purpose which made me unmotivated and distracted from study.

I decided to take some time off to go travelling and reassess what I wanted to do with my life.

To make this decision, I talked with friends and family, but I didn’t speak with any university staff. Looking back it would have been really good to speak with academics as I didn’t really understand my options. I had always assumed I would go to university and get a degree, so it did feel like a bit of a failure, and I felt a bit lost.

I had every intention of going back to study but I needed to figure out what I wanted to do first and explore the world. I had a great time travelling, it was a wonderful adventure – I really believe that travel helps shape the person you are, you gain life skills and perspective.

When I came back to Australia I landed an office admin job and while it was great to earn some money, I knew that it was really important to me that I earn my degree. I had some work and life experience now and with this, I felt ready to commit to study.

Rather than go straight to uni I decided to do some pathway courses. I had decided to change degrees so I didn’t have any credit from my previous study and I felt like this would be a good way to ease myself back in.

First I studied a Cert IV online, then a face-to-face Double Advanced Diploma (with credit from the Cert IV). I completed that qualification and received credit for 1.5 years of my Bachelor degree.

Everyone was really supportive of my choices. When I went back to uni I was balancing study with full-time work which was definitely a challenge, but otherwise I found that I was much more focused and motivated the second time. I was focused on the outcome I was trying to achieve and I was comfortable about my degree choice.