Hello! As you probably already know, I am Madison Every (judging by the fact that you are on my ePortfolio). This is my individual pathway story, one that involves myself, my learning and my future. Each section will be discussing a different part of my current life and the life that I currently wish to see myself in in the future. The purpose of the task is to help us both understand ourselves and continue to explore future opportunities and what we may wish to pursue after completing high school.

Your Self

The first section of this task is to discuss who you are, your identity and how you express yourself. This is important as it always us to further explore identity, while also directly relating this to what is good for one to personally pursue later in life. In my life, I often find myself relying on my core values, especially in how I react to certain situations. These are empathy, kindness, integrity and diligence. Although I do try to follow many other values as well, these four are those I strive to live by. Each affects a different part of my identity and how I present myself to others. Empathy (perhaps my favourite) is all about how I relate to others. It is my goal to ensure that I try to understand what others are going through in every situation. This is to ensure that I can be respectful and further connect to others, helping them in every way I can. My second value, kindness, can directly relate to this. Kindness is all about applying empathy and furthering this by helping others. This can be through small acts of kindness or larger acts. I try to live my life being kind to all. Another value is integrity. I see myself as a person who doesn’t want to disappoint and always finds myself following the rules. However, a value I respect in others and myself is integrity. Even if you have done something wrong, I always believe that owning up to your mistake is better than not, and to always strive to be honest. Finally, diligence is another value that I strive to live by. I often find myself trying to put 100% of my effort into everything that I do. This is a value that I live by. Everything that I do must represent me, and what I strive to achieve with what I do. This is why putting a lot of thought and effort into work is very important to me.

My interests are another part of my identity. Although this list is cut to the extreme, I find some of my main interests to be problem-solving, learning about the world and creative writing. I quite like maths, science, English and many forms of the arts (especially drama and acting). I dislike the attribute of only caring about yourself or not being open-minded.

I believe that my skills are English, understanding and evaluating data, as well as easily gaining an understanding of different concepts.

Although I may be completely wrong, I believe that others may see me as stubborn (to a point where it is annoying at times) and as someone who dwells on the smaller thing. I know I can also sometimes be a bad leader at times, controlling the group rather than helping every member strive. However, this is something that I am working to improve, in order to ensure that I can be the most effective leader in any situation.

Your Learning

My learning is the next part of this task. This is important as it is discussing how you learn best, and what you enjoy the most, factors that directly relate to how one might wish to spend their future. My favourite subjects (as a whole) would have to be maths and drama. However, I do also enjoy specific topics in other subjects (such as creative writing and human biology). I think I like math because it is all about problem-solving and building off previously learned information. I do well at understanding problems based on learned knowledge and enjoy the challenge of a problem. I also like how the majority of maths is either right or wrong, and you can always learn exactly where you went wrong and where to improve. I think I also enjoy drama as it is such an expressive art form, that allows me to connect with myself and a character. Currently, I am studying all of the core subjects (maths, English, science and humanities), along with drama (production and screen acting specialised). I also study general sports, religion and philosophy, life skills and health (due to them being in the year 9 curriculum). Next year, I would like to continue studying the core subjects, as well as all subjects required by the school. I would also like to continue to study drama. I am currently unsure about what I want to do for the other electives. To help improve my grades, I can ensure that I understand all of the contexts taught in each class (either by revising it or going over class work). I can also ensure repetition (as this can help me remember and apply the information). I like to learn through the application of skills (questions or practical tasks), especially in a situation where I know exactly why each component works. I think this works as it gives me a chance to not only learn but also understand concepts and how to do something (rather than just having textbook knowledge). At school, you can learn social skills, especially those through team building activities. Due to being constantly surrounded by many other students, you can often pick up how to react in specific situations. Outside of school, I have learnt skills such as how to interact with others, independence, responsibility for myself and to help others, and how to do other hobbies that are not included in school. Three of the most important life lessons are to always be kind to others (you never know what anyone is going through), always work hard (especially when striving for goals) and that failure is just another part of growth and learning. For future learning I would like to attend a university, possibly studying biomedical science and biochemistry.

Your Working Future

The final part of this task is about your future, or where you see yourself working in years to come. This is important as it is the beginning of us discovering how we want to spend our lives outside of school, reflecting on what we can do now to help achieve that goal. It also helps us gain a better sense of self and security about the future, giving us something that we can work towards achieving. The job that I choose to look at further was biochemistry. This is because I am very interested in biology (especially human biology) and feel that this is something I may want to pursue in the future. To gain this job, you need a bachelor’s degree in science or applied science, majoring in biochemistry, molecular biology, biomedical science or a related field to work as a Biochemist. It is also common to complete postgraduate studies. Organisations, where biochemists work, include scientific research institutions (such as Commonwealth institutions), medical research centres and hospital laboratories. An Australian organisation that has biochemists is the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. When analysing a job, it is also a good idea to look at influential people in that field, as it shows the extent of what can be achieved in that role. Har Gobind Khorana is a biochemist, known for their work on nucleotides in nucleic acids control protein synthesis, winning the Nobel Prize. Another well-renowned biochemist is Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist of the University of California Berkeley, most known for her work in the CRISPR gene editing.

As a whole, this task was a great way for us to understand ourselves, how we work and where we see ourselves in the future. It helps give us a sense of identity, and how to use our skills and interests in the future as job opportunities.