ABSTRACT
I am the first in my family to attend university. My parents were tradespeople—my father a small goods butcher, my mother a hairdresser. As a primary school student, I had a “calling”—I knew that I would one day work in a hospital. I had no role models and knew nothing about what that really meant, but I was strongly drawn to the health professions from a young age. In secondary school I volunteered every weekend at a nursing home where my career path was cemented. I started studying psychology at the University of Adelaide and worked at two nursing homes, every Saturday and Sunday morning for six years, to fund my studies.
