I am Shannon, and I am a USQ student.

I kind of just went, you know, when QTAC applications went up I just went ‘ah, that’ll do’, and so I kind of, you know, dived in head first into what I really wanted to do at the end cause, like I said, people kind of expected me to be an academic of some sort and I headed in and I’m like, ‘I don’t really wanna do that anymore. I don’t enjoy it. I’m good at it, but I don’t enjoy it’, so I thought I’m going to do something that’s going to be...I dunno. I kind of went, ‘I’m putting it in God’s hands’ you know, I’m just like ‘I’ll do this’, you know? Because I figured if I’m going to be...something, I wanna be able to be 80 years old, and grandkids going, ‘what did you do?’, ‘I tried’, that was kind of what I wanted to say.

In high school you get told that there’s an assignment that the teacher will give every lesson until that assignment is due to do the assignment. But here it’s like, ‘you have an assignment due’, and then you just move on, and you’re expected to do it. So it’s a bit hectic, and then you get thrown into a major theatre, we got sorted into a children’s festival as well, so rehearsals everyday for that. My time’s being eaten up. But with that being said, it’s been really fun too. Like the fast pace has been fun cause it’s kept you on your toes.

I do like the fact that, if I need to, I have the support there. Like if for some random reason my internet at home goes down I have the computer labs here, I have internet access here. If I need help with something I can grab a lecturer’s phone number and it’s there, and the on-line forums are there. If need it.

In the Creative Arts there’s a lot of, ‘how are you going? What’s going on?’, they constantly ask, “are you okay with your assignments”, cause there’s a big practical performing part to the...to the course, so you kind of need to keep in check, and they’re just really friendly. It’s not like they’re sitting there barking orders at you, or standing there just being a lecturer or a teacher, they’re actually kind of there as a person. Someone you can talk to. And all of them, you know, they’re professionals in the area I wanna get into. So it’s good to...you can go up to them any time, ask questions. Yeah, they try to make as much time as they can.

Classmates: Ohh!

Shannon: Are you serious?

Classmate 1: I’m serious!

Classmate 2: Don’t hurt me!

Classmate 1: You can do it! No, you can do your side role.

I think I’d make a good drama teacher, cause in my final year of school I got asked to direct a children’s...like our...cause our school went from Prep to 12, so I got asked to take over the year 7’s primary school production. So I directed them, and I was kind of like their teacher for about a term, and I really enjoyed that so I’d really like to keep doing that.

You get it a lot that something like a Creative Arts, or a Theatre degree isn’t associated with success or money, and your parents and family members always want you to have the big pay cheque. And so, you know, it was kind of weird at first. They were kind of like, “oh...I don’t know...about that”, but, I don’t know about the rest of my family like my uncles and my aunties and my extended family, but my parents, every time I go home and I have a smile on my face and I’m like, “oh, today was awesome!”, they’ve kind of, sort of grown to the idea. And yeah, so they’re really supportive, and they really enjoy the fact that I enjoy uni.

I’ve just dived straight into a dream, and I’ve got a few friends just saying, “you’re living the dream, thank God for that, you’re awesome”, like it’s cool to actually see someone go after it.