UNLIKE her peers, Kim Wrigley was not your ordinary high school student but she certainly was a brave one.
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There aren’t many brave enough to don a uniform after twenty years but when Kim decided – in her early 40s – to go back to school to get her HSC, she knew it logistically made sense to do it at Bulahdelah Central School (BCS), school bag and all.
“I wasn’t aiming for an ATAR, I just wanted to finish this thing I had started but not done,” she said, referring to her teenage years when she dropped out of school to move around the state in admin jobs.
“I started to realise how much of an impact my life was having on my daughter and wanted to give her a better example. She is my greatest motivation.”
Her daughter, then in Year 8 while Kim was in Year 11, was initially embarrassed and bullied about her mother.
“But after a while she came to love that I was there and her friends adopted me as a bit of a mum figure at school.”
She added that although some were keen to get her into trouble so that she could serve a detention, she made lasting friendships, with peers as well as parents.
“It has been a bit of a strange ride,” she confessed.
Two years later she entered tertiary education to study teaching and attributes her journey to making her a more sympathetic teacher.
“A teacher’s perspective and a student’s perspective are very very different.”
Though at times overwhelmed, Kim completed her Bachelor of Education K-12 through the University of New England online, and now works as a casual teacher’s aid as well as teacher at the same school where she was a student not so long ago.
“BCS has been very supportive of me for the last seven years,” she said gratefully.
“Many many times it all seemed too much. There were a lot of burnt dinners,” she said, thanking her husband, mother and sister for their support.
Admittedly, if she had known what was ahead she’s not sure she would have done it.
“I’m still in this state of disbelief that it’s done.”
Kim will officially graduate in October at the age of 48. She refers to it as a “grand old age” – others might call it an inspiring one.