I mentioned this title to my son, who wisely commented, “Well it all depends where you set the bar.’
By most people’s bar, my athletic career would be a complete failure – in the seconds for the school hockey team, playing in D Grade in the church tennis team, last by a third of the pool in the year 9 swimming sports.
But I once won a race at the Sunday School picnic. I was about 18 and we were running on the sand at Torquay and somehow I managed to beat Joycie Ford, well-known as the best runner in the race. My athletic husband-to-be couldn’t have been prouder!
But if the bar was low in that field of endeavour, it was right up there in the academic arena – second wasn’t good enough. I did once get PL, pass at a lower standard, in Year 9 Art but any other subject was grist to the mill.
I was fortunate enough to live in the era of Commonwealth Scholarships. They weren’t too hard to get and the associated living allowance was dependant on your family income so I did well in this regard.
However university was in Melbourne and we lived in Geelong so money had to be stretched to cover living expenses. I enrolled at University Women’s College and sat for a College Scholarship and was successful. With both scholarships I had just enough to live on. Students working at paid jobs during the term was not even considered in that era as learning was a full time task, especially for science students who had 3 hours of practical work each week for each subject as well as lectures.
First year science – and a pretty raw recruit. Notes were taken during lectures and, in Physics, a weekly problem sheet was handed out. The first one was headed with a Bible quotation:
‘But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves’
I diligently did the problems but didn’t think to further check over or rewrite each lecture.
A Science degree required two terms learning Science French or Science German. I decided to do this in my first year and, while no oral work was required but simply the ability to translate scientific articles from these languages into English, my love of languages inveigled me into spending too much time on this subject.
By exam time I had a large amount of material to revise and ,yes, my results were an utter disappointment – one third class honour and three passes. I lost my college scholarship and felt utterly miserable.
I spent the three month Christmas holidays as a pseudo-nurse at the Geelong Hospital. I saved every penny and made it financially to the end of my second year when my results were good enough to have my scholarship restored. By the end of my third year I was offered a position as Physics tutor at the college.
Sometimes we have to fail first time round to learn about what life asks of us.
By most people’s bar, my athletic career would be a complete failure – in the seconds for the school hockey team, playing in D Grade in the church tennis team, last by a third of the pool in the year 9 swimming sports.
But I once won a race at the Sunday School picnic. I was about 18 and we were running on the sand at Torquay and somehow I managed to beat Joycie Ford, well-known as the best runner in the race. My athletic husband-to-be couldn’t have been prouder!
But if the bar was low in that field of endeavour, it was right up there in the academic arena – second wasn’t good enough. I did once get PL, pass at a lower standard, in Year 9 Art but any other subject was grist to the mill.
I was fortunate enough to live in the era of Commonwealth Scholarships. They weren’t too hard to get and the associated living allowance was dependant on your family income so I did well in this regard.
However university was in Melbourne and we lived in Geelong so money had to be stretched to cover living expenses. I enrolled at University Women’s College and sat for a College Scholarship and was successful. With both scholarships I had just enough to live on. Students working at paid jobs during the term was not even considered in that era as learning was a full time task, especially for science students who had 3 hours of practical work each week for each subject as well as lectures.
First year science – and a pretty raw recruit. Notes were taken during lectures and, in Physics, a weekly problem sheet was handed out. The first one was headed with a Bible quotation:
‘But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves’
I diligently did the problems but didn’t think to further check over or rewrite each lecture.
A Science degree required two terms learning Science French or Science German. I decided to do this in my first year and, while no oral work was required but simply the ability to translate scientific articles from these languages into English, my love of languages inveigled me into spending too much time on this subject.
By exam time I had a large amount of material to revise and ,yes, my results were an utter disappointment – one third class honour and three passes. I lost my college scholarship and felt utterly miserable.
I spent the three month Christmas holidays as a pseudo-nurse at the Geelong Hospital. I saved every penny and made it financially to the end of my second year when my results were good enough to have my scholarship restored. By the end of my third year I was offered a position as Physics tutor at the college.
Sometimes we have to fail first time round to learn about what life asks of us.
Carmyl Winkler
March 2023
March 2023
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