What are you guys doing now?

[pi]

So sorry for taking this off-topic, but I hope this is interesting for some people haha

I should have clarified that in terms of depressing, I meant for myself because seeing children who have barely started their lives going through these things that they have no control over. My cousin worked as a H.I.M at one and said that each staff member had something to put on during the day that acted as a mental barrier to not breakdown and when they put it on, they carried through the day as usual. After hearing that I have so much profound respect for them. I'm glad to hear that children have a higher chance of recovery.

Yeah that's fair enough. I think most people develop empathy instead of pity. It takes time, and I remember the first death I saw, gets 'easier' with time to deal with it all.

That sounds amazing and I'm very jealous that you get to do placements albeit it was because of your hard work that you got into the course in the first place haha! In your opinion, which ward did you find the most interesting whether that be in regards to diagnosis's or the responsibilities undertaken by those who worked within that ward?

Haha I'm sure you can get here one day!

My impressions of the wards so far:
- Most patient contact: psychiatry, they do an amazing job given the shitty resources they have available to them
- Least patient contact: ortho, literally 'this patient looks alive *poke*, let's move on' during the ward round
- Most interesting conditions: neuro, it's simply fascinating how the same problem can have a multitude of causes
- Least interesting: bariatric surgery, ie. weight reduction surgery for the morbidly obese
- Most rewarding: obs and gynae, there's no better feeling than giving a mother a baby you just delivered, smiles that can brighten anyone's day

[Ourinnerchild]

Yeah most people usually assume travel
Mainly looking at arts, maybe do a double with comm or sci still don't know. Don't think I'll get high enough for law (although a Melbourne JD would be a dream as a postgrad) and i'm also considering education but yeah rn it's mainly arts and still deciding if i should double, and if so which double!

PS. This thread is a cool idea (y)

Haha i feel your pain on whether to do double or not, I've been looking at education as well and I am pretty interested in it but who knows if future me feels the same way. Hopefully you make a decision soon and just remember, it's not exactly binding as you can still change if you decide something's not for you Hahah thanks, i thought of this tread whilst procrastinating my french sac (which is tomorrow :/)

[Kalopsic]

ortho, literally 'this patient looks alive *poke*, let's move on' during the ward round

This had me laughing for a good 5 minutes! I would +1 it if I could. Sounds like something from Scrubs

[Adequace]

Normal Year 10, balancing school with training for my sport which is 4 times a week. Manageable so far but I'm not sure if I can keep training so much when VCE comes along. Still pretty keen to break in to state level since I started pretty late compared to most athletes.

[Ourinnerchild]

I see the relevance with chemistry in regards to life in general but it's just not for me. Hold that applause since it's one thing to say I want to do it and another to actually be able to do it haha.
Oh nice! Part of the reason I wanted to volunteer was because there's always crazy stories like these coming from these first aid positions. What was their selection process like if you remember?

Haha true but I think you still deserve applause for doing it rn
Hahah I hear so many crazy stories, like this one time one of the guys at my division stuck his hand in a vomit bag......which had been used *shudder*. I don't know how it is for the adults, but for me I basically just rocked up to my division (Whitehorse Combined) and filled out the forms and joined in lol. I have a feeling adults would be somewhat similar, maybe not as relaxed but not too strict with the selection process.

[Ourinnerchild]

Normal Year 10, balancing school with training for my sport which is 4 times a week. Manageable so far but I'm not sure if I can keep training so much when VCE comes along. Still pretty keen to break in to state level since I started pretty late compared to most athletes.

Damn, i only do sport once a week but I have a friend who does basketball 4-5 times a week and i think she's part of Big V (basketball league? someone correct me if i'm wrong which i probably am lol ). It's never to late to start something, I guess if you really enjoy it you probably could fit it in with VCE but it would probably be best to cut it down slightly? idk I'm trying to sound smarter than I actually am haha

[spectroscopy]

this is a cool thread, i like it. its good to see what people ive pseudo-known on atarnotes for years are doing

what am i doing?? studying LOL nah
1st year comm at melb which is awesome !! wanted to do this course since year 9 but then i got really sick in vce and just missed out on the atar but SEAS carried me!! got sick again in the holidays and couldnt do my last 2 exams or the supplementary exams and was basically out of action for 2 months and lost all my gains from training now just running to and from doctors trying to figure out long term options so i dont miss anymore subjects/exams/can travel/live a normal life, but everything is on hold for the next month so my training doesnt get disrupted too much before the australian university games !! which will probably be my last athletic performance in life goodbye olympic dreams     doesnt matter commerce is all i need <3

[Ourinnerchild]

this is a cool thread, i like it. its good to see what people ive pseudo-known on atarnotes for years are doing

what am i doing?? studying LOL nah
1st year comm at melb which is awesome !! wanted to do this course since year 9 but then i got really sick in vce and just missed out on the atar but SEAS carried me!! got sick again in the holidays and couldnt do my last 2 exams or the supplementary exams and was basically out of action for 2 months and lost all my gains from training now just running to and from doctors trying to figure out long term options so i dont miss anymore subjects/exams/can travel/live a normal life, but everything is on hold for the next month so my training doesnt get disrupted too much before the australian university games !! which will probably be my last athletic performance in life goodbye olympic dreams     doesnt matter commerce is all i need <3

Sounds horrible that you were so sick during VCE and that you're (still?) sick hopefully you don't miss anything more and can pursue what you want to Hope your degree goes well and you continue to enjoy it! Hang in there!

[Adequace]

this is a cool thread, i like it. its good to see what people ive pseudo-known on atarnotes for years are doing

what am i doing?? studying LOL nah
1st year comm at melb which is awesome !! wanted to do this course since year 9 but then i got really sick in vce and just missed out on the atar but SEAS carried me!! got sick again in the holidays and couldnt do my last 2 exams or the supplementary exams and was basically out of action for 2 months and lost all my gains from training now just running to and from doctors trying to figure out long term options so i dont miss anymore subjects/exams/can travel/live a normal life, but everything is on hold for the next month so my training doesnt get disrupted too much before the australian university games !! which will probably be my last athletic performance in life goodbye olympic dreams     doesnt matter commerce is all i need <3

Unfortunate man, what events do you compete in?

[spectroscopy]

Unfortunate man, what events do you compete in?

high jump is my main event and is what im mostly training for for uni games! so much fun

[sjayne]

Haha don't worry, I'm already having so many crises in year 11 
That sounds amazing!! what's been your favourite part of your degree so far? I'm glad that you're doing something you enjoy and even though you had to change and you're expecting yourself to change, I think that's just a normal part of the growing up and maturing process (can you tell i say this to myself to keep myself motivated?) ahah but hopefully you're degree goes well and so does your research even if you change again, just remember that it's your choice and your life, no one else can tell you what you should be doing because it's your own place in life that you're dictating for yourself

My favourite part has been getting the chance to learn, learning is the best and at uni it just feels like you can do anything, regardless of how hard you thought it was before. And yes change is good!!  I hope this year treats you well, and make sure you enjoy the time you have left at school. It's not as long as it feels.

[slothpomba]

People tend to drop off here as they get older.You won't find a lot of people working full time jobs here (although i know plenty of people from AN who are now in that situation). My main goal in life is to have no regrets and not wind up moderating a VCE website because you can't let go (oh shit).

[Warning: Like all my posts this is going to be a long one...]

I started out in highschool wanting to go into IT. Like a lot of geeky dudes (and plenty of girls) i was into computers, knew a lot about them and spent a lot of time around one (that's becoming even more common now though, this was all pre myspace or facebook). So, seemed like the natural progression. Did all the VCE IT subjects i could, even in year 10.

I had a single subject left to fill in VCE, it was a coin flip between geography or biology (only cause i had mates in those). Flipped it and ended up in biology, this one small thing probably altered the entire course of the rest of my life (butterfly effect moment?).

After that i became intensely fascinated with the very essence of the spark of life, what makes everything around us tick. Your heart never stops, ever. It never needs to take a break, catch it's breath. For most people, from the moment you're born to the moment you die it's the one constant inside you. You're brain is a seemingly tangled mess of goo and yet it's produced everything from the Mona Lisa to the Internet, somehow this random mush is conscious and creative, it is you and we're still not 100% sure why it works at all. Photosynthesis and the plant kingdom is so elegant in its solution to things it's amazing, only now we're coming to grasp it with things like solar panels.

Ever since then, i fell in love with biology. Originally thought of medicine because hey, a lot of people around here do. It was not something i think i ever truly wanted because i didn't even really try that hard (failed one subject in VCE and got 26 in another; studied for the umat the night before). Applied for Melbourne Science, didn't get in, wound up somewhat begrudgingly at Monash. I originally hated it, i wanted to transfer out. It was 4 hours travel a day, every day in the first year. I didn't put myself out there so i didn't meet many people and felt lonely often, it got kind of dark there. All the signs would point to me just dropping the whole endeavor.

Then, something changed. It got better. I travelled less, i met more people, i was actually laughing with friends and enjoying my coursework. It just got better and better from there as well. The more pharmacology and physiology subjects i took, the more of a junkie i became for studying drugs. These tiny little things can be anything from some of the worst poisons known to man where a single gram or two could kill a room full of people (botox, surprise!) to a molecule so remarkable it'll forever change the course of human history (the plague was probably caused by bacteria, it killed something like 2/3rd of Europe, now you'd just take antibiotics and probably be OK at the end).

Right now it's my 5th year because i added on another degree. Religion and philosophy is something i've always been super interested in and i thought, why not, i'm probably going to only have this opportunity once and i took it. Been fairly great so far. I'm also looking for honours projects to do next year in pharmacology, they removed a few of the ones i liked best but replaced them with others that are alright. Although i'm having a bit of an existential crisis and not sure if i want to go down the path of being a scientist or even doing honours and i might totally ditch it for a masters in something. 

[Ourinnerchild]

After that i became intensely fascinated with the very essence of the spark of life, what makes everything around us tick. Your heart never stops, ever. It never needs to take a break, catch it's breath. For most people, from the moment you're born to the moment you die it's the one constant inside you. You're brain is a seemingly tangled mess of goo and yet it's produced everything from the Mona Lisa to the Internet, somehow this random mush is conscious and creative, it is you and we're still not 100% sure why it works at all. Photosynthesis and the plant kingdom is so elegant in its solution to things it's amazing, only now we're coming to grasp it with things like solar panels.

Ever since then, i fell in love with biology. Originally thought of medicine because hey, a lot of people around here do. It was not something i think i ever truly wanted because i didn't even really try that hard (failed one subject in VCE and got 26 in another; studied for the umat the night before). Applied for Melbourne Science, didn't get in, wound up somewhat begrudgingly at Monash. I originally hated it, i wanted to transfer out. It was 4 hours travel a day, every day in the first year. I didn't put myself out there so i didn't meet many people and felt lonely often, it got kind of dark there. All the signs would point to me just dropping the whole endeavor.

Then, something changed. It got better. I travelled less, i met more people, i was actually laughing with friends and enjoying my coursework. It just got better and better from there as well. The more pharmacology and physiology subjects i took, the more of a junkie i became for studying drugs. These tiny little things can be anything from some of the worst poisons known to man where a single gram or two could kill a room full of people (botox, surprise!) to a molecule so remarkable it'll forever change the course of human history (the plague was probably caused by bacteria, it killed something like 2/3rd of Europe, now you'd just take antibiotics and probably be OK at the end).

Right now it's my 5th year because i added on another degree. Religion and philosophy is something i've always been super interested in and i thought, why not, i'm probably going to only have this opportunity once and i took it. Been fairly great so far. I'm also looking for honours projects to do next year in pharmacology, they removed a few of the ones i liked best but replaced them with others that are alright. Although i'm having a bit of an existential crisis and not sure if i want to go down the path of being a scientist or even doing honours and i might totally ditch it for a masters in something.

This was really fascinating to read! I'm glad you ended up being really interested in bio, it seriously is really amazing when you think of all the work our body does without us really noticing it!  It's pretty cool that you're adding on Religion/Philosophy, which seems like it'd be really interesting to study along with science! I hope your degree goes well and you continue to enjoy it so much!

[MJRomeo81]

Great thread! It's fantastic to read about how people are finally achieving their dreams post VCE

As for myself, it's been an awesome journey since graduating VCE back in 2011:

• Finished year 12 knowing I wanted a career in the IT industry. I've had a passion for computing since primary school. Studied ITA and SD in high school but didn't really know whether I wanted to be a developer, sysadmin, network engineer, etc. Even in year 12 I wasn't sure if uni was right for me. I considered TAFE but chose to go to uni by the time VTAC came calling for preferences.
• Graduated top of my class in the Bachelor of Information Technology degree @ La Trobe University. Absolutely smashed all of my subjects, developed close friendships/networks with lecturers, was employed as a tutor in the department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering and taught four subjects and loved every second of it. Took Masters level database subjects as electives and also dabbled in macroeconomics, philosophy and Roman History. 
• By this point I was in LOVE with databases - in particular Oracle databases. My dream was to become an Oracle DBA.
• Through lecturer connections, I was recommended for a software engineering role with the Australian Defence Force in collaboration with ADFA/UNSW. I spent a few weeks in Canberra but I ultimately felt this wasn't for me. My passion for IT was still there but the nature of the role wasn't suited for a fresh graduate. Left this gig before it destroyed my passion.
• Spent the next two months looking for a new job. Some real soul-searching occurred during this period. Maybe what they said about the IT industry was true (i.e. it's F*****)
• I had a late night watching Serie A. Monday morning 9AM while I'm still rolling around depressed in bed - my phone rings. "Unknown number - who the F*** is this I'm thinking?" I answer the phone...a DREAM job I had applied for over 1.5 months ago got back to me and offered me an interview. A few days later, I received another invite for an interview from a different company. I went from 0 interviews in 2 months to two in two days. I had to make a decision.
• One week after my first interview, I accepted a job offer to become a Graduate Oracle DBA and have been loving it ever since.

Please ignore formatting - it looks like bullet points don't work.

[winchesteraddict]

What am I doing now?
Well, trying to balance the load of doing seven subjects in one darn year. ATM? In the state library, doing some biology unit 4.
BUT THE GRIND DOES NOT STOP
I really need a girl in my life