Teacher

Researcher

Event Organiser 

I am a...

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I'm not a professional in music, painting or photography.

The word amateur - deriving from the French 'lover of'

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But, in many ways, in a true sense I'm an amateur of the arts and life.

Persistent

My life has taught me to be determined. An old injury left my leg in pain on and off for many years. But, I learned to accept that this was a part of life and did martial arts, hiking in forests and have been lucky to climb mountains. I was at times slower than others. But,

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With each difficult step, I had to chose to go on

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I took those opportunities and chose to view the difficulties as lessons in themselves.

Creative 

I love to paint, photograph and play music. I always wanted to learn to play the guitar. The school I attended didn't have any classes left with the guitar teacher, so they put a flute in my hand. At the age of 30 I finally thought I should pick up a guitar. A refugee in Malaysia later became my guitar teacher. I discovered age isn't a barrier when learn to be creative. Also, through art, an old habit that I started by painting on walls as a child, is still going strong.

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Learner

My main passion is learning something new and overcoming my old fears. I never learnt to ride a bike as a child. Then after a short bout in the hospital, I got home and two weeks later bought a bike and jumped on. I was 26. It became a life lesson - not that you ever forget how to ride a bike, but with courage that you can learn anything anytime.

New Ventures

August 2018 me and my husband adopted Felicity aka Flick. A young Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Never having owned a dog before she was something of a revelation. 

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She has certainly kept us on our toes and given us a lot to learn.

Instagram

In September 2018, my husband had the idea to start Instagram for Flick as a short experiment into engagement. And then promptly decided to take a month off social media and left it in my hands to develop. I'd never even been on Instagram before. From zero followers, I learnt the tricks of the trade and as of June 2020 we have close to 8500 followers - with many more been added daily. 

Outcomes

Avoiding the follow/unfollow rules, we decided to put my husband's PhD research (and my own) in community engagement as basic principles to develop our account. It was slower but leads to more genuine followers, impact-full posts and dare I say relationships.

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And a lot of hard work. Phrases such as potty training, working on recall, leave it!, positive-training, dominance myth, European pet passport, vaccinations schedules, scientific methods opposed to the Cesar Milan approach - and many more suddenly became a part of my daily speech.

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My language changed and so did my mind-set. Who knew having a dog was an introduction to a whole new aspect of life and field of study? And, who knew her joyful way of being would soothe our at times cynical and world-weary souls?  

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We've posted on health issues and raised awareness for mental health through our little dog account. I learnt a little more on photography (still an amateur!) and how to photo edit, learning about filters and colour theory. I soon realised this was another art form and an interesting engagement tool. The potentials for research dissemination are also intriguing. My husband (due to his PhD) focuses on engagement and I was the content creator - focusing on story and visuals. We form a good team.  

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Social media is now a fact of life and learning to manage it is also important as a professional. We are still learning. But seeing other researchers on instagram and my own work with photovoice I can see the potential for academic engagement through the platform. The skills I've learnt from this short venture I can already see being used in other community development settings. And with a little creativity it could become a potential useful bridge between academic research and wider communities.