It was during Grade 7 that I had been swimming at a waterhole in Bunya Forest one afternoon after school with some friends. I was playing on some rocks that were wet and slippery from the moss. I slipped and hit my chest on a piece of rock jutting out from the surrounding granite. I not only felt like I had fallen on a blunt knife, but I also suffered from a dose of amnesia that day. I failed to remember that I had swum across the other side of the creek. My father tried to jog my memory, but was unsuccessful.

That night I was taken to my family’s local doctor, who later diagnosed me as having Rheumatic Fever.

I was sent to a Specialist who informed my mother that I had a loud murmur over my heart and I would need immediate bed rest and medication. For three months I convalesced at home. My mother invested a lot of her time and energy towards my recovery. She still managed to look after my younger brothers and sisters also. My father was a good provider and we lived a very comfortable life.

My mother became concerned about my schooling and she approached the school about the possibility of my doing some work at home. They were less than cooperative because they were not a correspondence school. It was then that my mother approached a primary correspondence school through which I was able to receive lessons and submit tasks. I did quite well scholastically during this time, as I had very little distraction. By the time I went back to school I had overtaken my peers in academic achievement. The teachers were so amazed, that they wanted to see my papers. It was difficult for me to homogenise with the class as I had been to some extent in solitary confinement.

I managed to have a crush on a guy in Grade 7 and I was to be his partner at an  upcoming School Ball. The only problem was he had a crush on Joanne. He broke my heart when he said he didn’t want me for his partner. I remember having a crush on a guy in Grade 3, but he had a crush on the same girl. Yes, Joanne! Its funny though, when I try to think of the guys’ names, I can’t. I think I have subconsciously erased them from my memory.

I spent my Secondary School education at an all girls’ school and my favourite teacher happened to be a nun. She seemed to have a lot of empathy for me and was instrumental in helping me to land a job in a Legal Aid Office.

School days can definitely be the best and worse years of your life.