Hello Bri!
Were you always vegetarian and if not, what prompted you to become a vegetarian?
also another question
At the end of year 12 did you think you would get the ATAR you got or did it come as a surprise when you saw your results? Asking this as you mentioned your school hadn't seen a 90+ in years.
Hey Ionic Doc!
Haven't always been vegetarian. The first prompt towards it was when studying philosophy through DECV in year 7. We had an excursion were we were talking about the rights of animals & I said that given we can't communicate with animals and we know they feel suffering, emotions etc. we should treat them as we would want to be treated. Teacher asked if I was vegan, I said no, and they thought I should adjust my belief to be consistent with my actions. I, on the other hand, thought I should adjust my actions to be consistent with my belief. Went home, asked mum if I could be vegetarian she said no it's unhealthy and that was the end of it for a bit. Few years later we watched a doco in outdoor ed about the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment (neither of the teachers were vegetarian or vegan) and in that I learnt that being vegetarian or vegan can be healthy. Since my career plan was marine biology I thought that if I'm going to be asking people/organisations/companies to adjust their actions to benefit marine life then I better be willing to do the same and voila I haven't eaten meat since. A year later I became vegan but that was more related to animal cruelty concerns whereas my vegetarianism was primarily from an environment perspective.
I know this can be a contentious topic for some; I'm happy to debate anyone who disagrees with my views in the rants/debates section
also another question
At the end of year 12 did you think you would get the ATAR you got or did it come as a surprise when you saw your results? Asking this as you mentioned your school hadn't seen a 90+ in years.
I had a pretty strong idea I'd be 90+ and I really wanted 98+ but I certainly wasn't confident I'd get that. Throughout year 12 people had been punching projections of my study scores into atar calc and telling me the outcome so I certainly knew it was a
possibility but there was plenty of doubting and stressing along the way.
How can I get to be as awesome as you when I grow up?
You're such a gem already....
I'm torn between a few different responses here:
1. Reminding you how amazing
you are
2. Describing a bit about how I came to be who I am
3. Giving advice for anyone interested in self improvement
I'm going to try going with a hybrid of these:
Your innate value isn't going to change as a result of what happens to or with you. It's always there, and I've communicated my recognition of you and who you are at your core before and I'll do it again: you're an incredible person who has been dedicating yourself to make the world better socially & environmentally. You've helped an absolutely gigantic amount of students and you keep working on yourself and pushing forward. Your forward sometimes has, and sometimes will, take you somewhere different than my forward but please don't mistake that as your journeys or destinations being less valuable than mine.
My journey has been significantly influenced by me doing a lot of introspection on how I can be a "good person" and trying to improve that a lot but I can tell you that the times when I was at my worst and struggling the most that introspection was a lot more maladaptive & harmful. I focus myself on my two core values: empathy (to tell me what direction to go in) and determination (to make sure I keep going) and a large part of my personal development has been learning to include self-empathy in determination & protecting my ability to invest in future when I consider how hard to push my determination (hence my quote "invest in your wellbeing so it can invest in you"). Overall, my advice to anyone wanting to focus on their personal development is to focus on progress rather than perfection.
Also what's your favourite species other than turtles? (because I know you'll say turtles otherwise)
Turtles are multiple species so since you don't already have the exact answer for what
species is my favourite:
- My favourite turtle species are
Dermochelys coriacea the leatherback sea turtle,
Chelonia mydas the green sea turtle, and
Chelodina longicollis the eastern long neck turtle
- I'd have to go with tortoises for my favourite non-turtle species (you can tell they aren't my favourite because I haven't got the scientific names of any tortoises memorised).
- Assuming you wanted a non-testudine answer.... I'm not sure. I have a soft spot for snow leopards since they're mum's favourite but there are so many amazing organisms and I'd have to think before answering. it might be a plant species - probably a tree of some sort.