Shortlisting careers

A moment of startling clarity just struck.

Was - once again - looking up the requirements for gaining a VIC practice cert.

Was it because of C's email informing that his boutique law firm has been acquired by WP and that he will henceforth be with WP?

Was it because G suggested yesterday that I might not like law but I might be good at it?

Anyway, after looking up the Law in Vic website and comparing College of Law vs. Leo Cussens Institute vs. ANU, I came back to a suggestion hubby has made before - becoming a Migration Agent/Lawyer.

In AUS, one does not need to have a legal background to become a registered migration agent.

However, you do need to have a Grad Cert in Migration Law and Practice, which at the moment is offered by only two institutions: ANU and VU.

At ANU, the course is offered full-time (20 weeks) and/or part-time (40 weeks) and costs $9600.

The VU course costs $9226 and is offered off-campus and face-to-face. You can do the course full-time (4 subjects in one semester) or part-time (1 or 2 subjects per semester).

ANU also offers a Grad Dip in Legal Practice, which allows direct admission to the bar. The Grad Dip has three parts:

Becoming a Practitioner
Professional Practice Core
Elective Stream A/B

It's like re-doing the PLC. Not exactly an exciting prospect. :(

The course fee for the Grad Dip in Legal Practice is $6525.

I am inclined towards the Migration Law route because it's more focussed, which removes my anxiety about studying more than one subject at a time.

From a humanitarian point of view, it also gives me a way to do my bit about an issue of great relevance to AUS as a nation: how to deal in a humane and sustainable manner with refugees and asylum seekers such as the Christmas Island boat people.

The Grad Dip in Migration Law leads to two possible career options: becoming a migration agent or a Migration Lawyer.

The requirements for registration as a migration agent have been tightened though, so getting the Dip is not all there is.

There is a knowledge component (you have to be an Aus lawyer or Grad Dip in Migration Law diplomate) and a language component (IELTS/internet-based TOEFL/evidence of successful completion of 'A' levels AND Bachelor or higher degree).

What a lot of hoops just to forge a new legal-related career.

Still...it's exciting - after all this dithering - to finally be seeing some (possible) light!

PS. Since writing this post, I discovered through the VU website that there are other short courses I may want to explore:

• Cert IV in Training and Assessment (Justice and Legal Sector)
• Cert IV in Govt (Court Services)
• Grad Dip in Notarial Practice

Teaching music to an adult learner

Just finished third keyboard lesson with my student.

Am feeling...relieved? thankful?...that the lessons have gone well so far and that she's enjoying them.

Today, we worked on chord structure and inversions, and she played four simple pieces on her own for the first time: Twinkle Twinkle, Jingle Bells, Are You Sleeping, Row Row Row Your Boat.

Wow.

At the start of the lesson, my student mentioned that she'd had a massive migraine the day before.

So we prayed together, offering up her migraine as well as the day's lesson.

That's what I love about working with fellow believers: we're on the same page and share similar values, which expands our options and solutions.

Time flew by really quickly (always one of my worries: what if the lesson drags and we finish earlier than planned?) and when we next looked, 45 min had gone by and she had to go. The lesson was meant to be 30 min long.

Better that than the reverse situation any time!

This Christmas madness

I have a confession to make: I don't like Christmas.

Even though I am a believer in Jesus Christ.

Or maybe because.

There's something about Dec 25 that makes everyone just a little crazy. What's with the long queues in the mall, not enough parking places, songs about winter and snowmen and reindeer that have no relevance to us in the Southern hemisphere, decorating trees and having a houseful of people over for Christmas lunch/dinner, and buying presents not just for one's own family but relatives and friends' children?

We're not living on the edge of poverty, but if we have to keep up with the way Christmas is done here, we certainly will be in danger of it.

I thought we were pretty bad in SG, the way we used to stress over what to get our CG members' kids. Each family would buy for the kids of all the other families, and we're not talking simple things like a box of chocolates. Kris Kringle didn't exist.

Here, I thought we'd finally escaped the consumer trap of buying presents and giving for the sake of giving.

But my girls have been the recipients of so many gifts from unexpected quarters that even though we have no intention of buying into the Christmas frenzy, we are now looking at their rapidly growing pile of presents under our little tree and wondering, how did we get to this? Is it right to have so much when others are struggling? Would anything change if we gave away some of our gifts? (Indeed, I made this suggestion to Beth and she was surprisingly receptive.)

When Mum gets mad

Find myself getting angry over little things and big things.

When my kids interrupt me while I'm online/reading/enjoying some quiet time...

When my kids refuse to get out of bed/get dressed/brush their teeth, which makes us late getting to church/class...

When the kids give me a hard time and hubby isn't around to help (cos he's out helping someone else, which makes me feel resentful but also guilty that I'm so xiao3 qi4)...

When hubby comes home and I want to update him on what's happened during the day, but find myself getting annoyed because of the extra effort it takes to explain who's so-and-so or why something has happened...

Being the sole breadwinner, he's never around to take the kids to school or pick them up. He doesn't know their teachers except when he meets them at the parent-teacher interview. He doesn't know about their friendships and social interactions, or who the mum/dad of our child's friend is, except at birthday parties.

That gives me mixed feelings.

I am happy and proud that I have a good, close relationship with my girls. I love knowing their friends and their friends' parents.

But being a SAHM with no steady source of income also makes me frustrated, resentful and underachieving.

Yes, I fell into this path, and allowed it to continue for five years.

In this time, I have tried my hand at affiliate marketing, internet marketing, freelance writing, proofreading and copy editing, career coaching.

They have resulted in the acquisition of new life skills and an insight into how others do it, but not much in extra income. The "I did it, and so can you" promises of many a marketing ad have not brought similar results in my bank balance.

I am still lacking the critical elements: a sound business plan, a good marketing strategy and a team of experts to advise me.

It sounds all too hard, or maybe I'm too soft for the entrepreneurial path.

Perhaps I am made to work at a steady job in an organization and be happy with it, not hanker after what is not mine.

Which is a pretty depressing way of saying I have come Full Circle, and discovered that I was on the 'right' path all along, and should have just stuck with it.