Australian Defence Force Academy

I started there in 2005. It was awesome fun at first. We were smashed and quickly created strong bonds with other people in our division.

I miss everyone i ever met there. I'm lucky i still live in canberra and can still visit everyone...but its definatly a major change from living with the 42 people in my division. It was like having 42 close brothers and sisters and 85 others who were in the other divisions but just as close. Plus over 100 close cousins, who were in the navy and air force. The bad thing was it was also like having 50 parents who everyone had to respect 100%. If you misbehaved it was worse than getting a wack with the wooden spoon or sent to your room.

Lets just say they could 'ground' you for a long time and take away your 'pocket money'. And the chores were a bit worse than cleaning your room. But you had to do that too, and to perfection. No chucking clothes in the wardrobe to get them off the floor. We had what they called 'tiered draw inspections'. All cupboards and draws open and neat.

All our uniforms had to be ironed and startched and placed in the right place in the cupboard. The hats had their own 2 shelves and places and also had to be pressed. Our brass had to be frequently polished (until we got them gold plated- the best 50 bucks i have ever spent!) as did our shoes (no tricks to that one except friends and gossip sessions (or as the staff liked to think study time) on the floor with the polish).

But We also partied. Alot. We were 18/19 year olds with accomodation and food paid for so we had money...and cheap drinks. There were parties to celebrate everything. This one was from Trivia Night. There are so many more photos and they will be coming soon. There's so much to catch up on!!

Div paintball was awesome. This was our all Amy Division in 2006.

Not suprisingly, i loved the physical side of it. I loved smashing the boys and hearing the PTI's (physical training instructor) yell out to the boys "Your getting beaten by a girl!" and then they would respond "But it's Baker!". Ha ha..i loved it.

We frequently went 'out Bush' to Majura or Singleton and we shot guns and rifles. We learnt to do section attacks and got 'attacked' at night and had to protect our boundries. I loved all of that but again i was soon snapped into reality- women still weren't allowed in Infantry positions in the Australian Army- so the likelyhood of me doing that as a career was 0%.

I was studying a science degree there and it was BORING. I soon realised that i wouldn't take me anywhere or help my dream of one day becoming a physiotherapist, so my mind began to wander and i looked at other options ouside of the Academy.