A year 12 Warrnambool College student says she is relieved to finish high school after undertaking her Victorian Certificate of Education studies across four years while battling chronic fatigue syndrome.
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Millicent Lee was among 51,214 students across the state to graduate on Monday, December 11, 2023.
The 19-year-old said she felt a sense of relief about completing VCE through a mix of studying onsite and at home after long periods away from school.
"It's nice to know it's finally done. It's finally the last thing related to school," Ms Lee said.
While she did not wish to divulge her Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank score, she said it was enough to get into the courses she was interested in. She hopes to study film and television, archaeology, fashion or international relations.
"I'm just going to see what happens, but my goal at the moment is to do film," Ms Lee.
"I think I'll probably take a gap year and really work on getting my health back, resting and probably just working a bit and getting some money behind me."
She said she also hoped to spend next year putting together a portfolio to submit to film schools.
Ms Lee said in 2020 she studied several year 11 subjects followed by a mix of year 11 and year 12 subjects for the remaining years of schooling.
"This year has probably been the best my health has been," she said.
"I attended school the most this year than I have in six years."
Ms Lee was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome when she was 14.
CFS, otherwise known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, is a neurological disorder that affects many parts of the body, including the brain and muscles, digestive, immune and cardiac systems.
Ms Lee said her symptoms included extreme exhaustion where she couldn't move or get out of bed, brain fog, difficulties with reading for prolonged periods, nausea and headaches.
She said she was also diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome, a condition when a person's heart rate increased very quickly after getting up from sitting or lying down, which resulted in dizziness and blackouts.
Lillian Altman
Lillian is an experienced journalist who joined Warrnambool Standard in late 2021. She has a particular interest in writing stories on the arts and culture, health, education, breaking news, police stories, as well as human interest and profiles.
Lillian is an experienced journalist who joined Warrnambool Standard in late 2021. She has a particular interest in writing stories on the arts and culture, health, education, breaking news, police stories, as well as human interest and profiles.
