Thank you very much for your kind words. I also look back and think, had I just given up or not pursued a university education, I may not have had the chances I did. Some might say, "Oh, but you could have just taken whatever was going and gone to Japan for a holiday." But I learnt one thing about myself in my first part-time role, which was a shop assistant. A man came in and wanted to buy a packet of three underpants, but they didn't have a barcode, so I had to key in a number of a price sticker, and the price that came up was $17.99, when they were really $3.99." I had to call my supervisor, and I did a price check, and again, I got the same result. The guy said, "You'll get it right, one day." And I thought, "It's not my fault if there's such a discrepancy. It's the manager's." Then, one night, a rough looking man came in and abused the staff generally because of scanning discrepancies. I also found that dealing with people was awkward and some thought I was too slow as I needed to be accurate. The manager said I was the best-mannered person there.

I went to Japan as part of my university class and it was structured. Had I just gone by myself, I would not have seen some of what I did.

But I have found that people get all excited about leaving school and all this newfound freedom, and yes, with adulthood comes some freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility, which some don't want to take.

I remember my Year Twelve Economics and Modern History Teacher saying that he and some of the other staff were getting fed up with hearing about "Year Twelve rights" and all that, to which I say, "I always took the attitude that we were to set an example for the younger years." I remember a bully from primary school who wanted to start fights and when we got to high school he said, "In primary school, you wanted to fight back." I never got into a fight and I thought two things. One, we were in high school and high school students were supposed to set an example for primary school students, and that primary school students were treated differently to high school students and two, fight for what you believe in, but not with your fists. And, the fact that some bullies ended up in trouble showed that they learnt nothing.

I am glad that I survived.