Tori Ellis

I’m from a mixed sheep and cropping farm in the Southern Riverina of NSW. Hands down it is the best place in the world. It’s quite close to the border between NSW and Victoria. I love my home!

I think it was just expected that I would go to university. I’m the youngest in my family and everyone else had already been. My teachers also encouraged me, as I was definitely academically capable. I guess it just seemed like the next step. I don’t think I ever considered not going or a different option once leaving school.

Once I got to uni though it was a big shock. Leaving home, being in a new city, making new friends, learning how to live independently – there were a lot of new challenges I had to learn to deal with.

I was quite homesick after my first year and I hadn’t been enjoying my course. I found myself wondering if I was making the right decision and if I was wasting my time racking up a massive HECS debt doing something I didn’t know if I would use in my career.

I decided to take a break, go home, earn money and go travelling.

Once I made the decision, I was honestly quite relieved. I needed a break and was looking forward to going home.  I had the best year of my life!! I worked really hard before I left and managed to save up a lot of money so I could afford to go backpacking around Europe! The extra time and space also gave me a chance to reflect.

As my leave of absence was drawing to a close, I was hesitant and concerned about going back to uni. I was afraid I would be unhappy there again.  I explored other options like TAFE, starting up my own t-shirt business and applied for jobs. I guess it’s lucky I was rejected though, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be about to graduate!

My parents were patient and non-judgmental. They were firm that it needed to be my decision to go back to uni or not.

Now here I am, having transferred into a Bachelor of Journalism, which I am enjoying a lot more than my previous creative arts course.  I also chose to live off campus, which I think suited me better after living on campus my first year. Generally speaking, my return to UOW was a lot easier than the initial commencement because I already knew people and had a pretty good idea of how everything worked.  I didn’t find it a struggle to get back into the work after a year off, in fact I was probably more motivated and received better marks than I had the first time round.