With officially 35 days until I am pens down on my degree I have been swamped with final semester reports, seminars, projects, interviews and the relentless dread of exam study. With graduation not until April, I wil have to wait until then to be deemed Mr. Timothy James Martin Bsc.

Still quite a scary thought to relaise the last four years of back-breaking labour (which I reluctantly paid to endure) and mind-numbing (which comes free with the package deal!) study is finally climaxing to me becoming qualified to get a 'real' respectable job outside of retail. I must admit, however, knowing that in just 1 mere month I'll be free to sleep in till whenever, lie on the beaches of god-knows-where, save monies to disappear... will all become all to real. The set routine of classes, laboratories, tutorials and field trips will all come to an end. Which in all reality will be for the very first time since I started school 16 very long years ago.

To have a degree in anything is a huge accomplishment everyone keeps telling me, but too me i'm very blessed that what I studied, is something that's very true too my heart. To those who don't know what I studied: I completed a Bachelor of Science - Double Major Sustainable Resource Management and Marine Biology degree at The University of Newcastle in NSW Australia (2002-2006).

Living in the dry, arid and relentless heat of the South Australian outback for the majority of my childhood fostered an enormous fascination for the sea and all its complex inhabitants and interactions with the terrestrial environments we know. So being accepted into this degree was more "OMG what fun!" then anything else.

... but so it ends... with me having NO idea where I'm headed. Only knowing that in 2 months time I start my volunteer work at The Australian Museum in the inner Sydney city working in the actual specimen identification and sorting laboratories and will hopefully acquire a full time paid position. Working at the museum will also expose me to the current studies being undertaken both at home and abroad and will allow me to build a solid network with all the respectable international marine scientists. This will allow many more oppurtunitues for career progression and interntaional travel!


So I just wanted to let you know how I'm going, both RL friends/family as well as my extended FF family. I hope you are all well,a nd I'm expecting many fun times (many drunken frolicks) once my final exam concludes at 3:55 pm of November 15th!!!

Cheers, Tim.

P.S: here's the link to my university site >> http://www.newcastle.edu.au/
or, more specifically my campus on the Central Coast >> http://www.ccc.newcastle.edu.au