Hello! I'm
Tennille
Welcome to my portfolio!
This portfolio shows a snapshot of my life.
I have many goals and ambitions which I have not yet realised.
I will continue working towards them because that makes life fun.
I enjoy learning and having a purpose in my personal and professional life.
In my downtime, I hike and spend time with my family and friends.
I invite you to have a look around...
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Hobbies and Interests
A few years ago, my husband and I decided to try hiking after I did a walk up Mount Coolum with my brother. The walk up Mount Coolum was a spur-of-the-moment decision. As I climbed up, I realised I was not fit, but I enjoyed being outside. The walk down was made on very shaky legs.
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When I got home, I asked my husband if he would be willing to start hiking with me. He was all in. We walked every weekend but waited six months to buy hiking shoes and have continued to hike every weekend. We have had two weekends away where we have specifically chosen our accommodation to suit the longer walks we wanted to do. The photo on the left is me at Suprise Rock at Binna Burra.
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Early in our walks, we walked the Kondlailla Falls walk down to the falls. Reading the signs, we discovered it was part of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk.
A new goal was born! I downloaded the map and started planning how to complete the great walk without camping. We did it piece by piece. We also slowly increased the distance we were hiking each weekend. We also gathered the necessary equipment for a longer hike, including a first aid kit.
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Once we could routinely complete a 10-kilometre hike on most weekends, we thought we were ready to tackle the monster at the end of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Great Walk.
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In December 2022, we finally completed the loop at the end. We started very early in the morning and walked 22 kilometres that day. We did the loop in a clockwise direction from Delicia Road.
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The last few kilometres were tough, and we were sore the next day. I was proud of how we worked as a team to complete the walk, encouraging each other when we struggled.
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I do not mind if a goal takes me a long time. I have found that persistently working towards long-term goals gets results. I am not a sprinter, but I can happily hike a long way.
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Family, Friends and Other Interests
I make time to spend with my family and friends. I am quite deliberate about it. These relationships are important to me, so I invest in them.
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I try to create opportunities for us to spend time as a family. The photo on the right is of my husband, myself, and our son at the Monet in Paris exhibition. We will spend three days and nights in the Brisbane CBD closer to Christmas. We will go to the Christmas Parade and see the Christmas lights. It is probably the last time our son will be willing to do this with us.
I am looking forward to making more great memories as a family.
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During my time off at home, I like to bake. I like chocolate, so most of the things I want to bake are chocolate-related. However, I have found a good carrot cake recipe because my best friend loves carrot cake. Or maybe she loves cream cheese icing?
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I am also an occasional gamer. I like the "souls and souls-like" games. I am not a skilled gamer, so these games provide excellent value for money because playing them takes me a long time. It has the bonus of giving me conversation topics with our son's friends.
I enjoy reading speculative fiction books, listening to non-fiction books, and listening to podcasts.
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![Data Processing](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_9aeb82c30e9742bcadc79b3dc8eb9fdb~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_980,h_551,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/11062b_9aeb82c30e9742bcadc79b3dc8eb9fdb~mv2.jpeg)
Why Data Science?
When I finished school, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Biomedical Science. It went terribly. My grades were like a randomiser had picked them. I was too immature to know it then, but it was a bad fit for me. I did do well in the engineering maths subject.
Moving on… I did some administration-type jobs. Through an odd series of events (a story for another time), I worked for a law firm that employed me as a conveyancing paralegal. I knew nothing about property law, so they taught me the skills to succeed. I loved being able to help clients experience the smoothest transactions I could. It is a very stressful experience to buy or sell a property, and the paperwork is staggering. Proper assistance makes a real difference to client satisfaction.
After my husband and I decided to extend our family, one of my previous bosses called me and asked if I would like to become the bookkeeper for their law firm. I decided that bookkeeping sounded like a good move for someone who wanted to be able to work part-time. I set myself up as a contractor and completed a Diploma in Accounting so that I understood how to be a good bookkeeper. I also found a few other clients and did basic bookkeeping for them, too. Over time, our child got older, and I worked more often while he was in primary school. This included doing some conveyancing, general administration, precedent creation and maintenance for the law firm I was a bookkeeper for.
Once our child finished primary school, I realised that bookkeeping was not my passion. I had a look around at careers I could transition into. I found data science. It has the maths I have always enjoyed, and it is complicated enough to be enjoyable, challenging and fun. I was lucky to find an online Bachelor of Computer Science with a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence major at Griffith University. I have been studying part-time online for the last few years.
My studies allow me to feel challenged and accomplished while also being able to co-parent our child with my husband. We feel that children benefit from their parents’ time and attention. Studying online has gifted me with the ability to be home to see our child grow into the adult we can see he could become. I am very grateful for the time with our child, and I am also relieved that adulthood is approaching.
It was a risk for someone with my background as a paralegal and bookkeeper to move into such an unfamiliar area with all its new jargon and concepts. If nothing else, I am adaptable, and I look forward to seeing if I can meld the experience and knowledge I gained in my previous career with my shiny new skills.