Emily Kavanagh wants to be remembered fondly.
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"I just hope that I'm a good person," the OVA veteran said while perched daintily on a retaining wall at Bicentennial Park - a spring sun beating down on her blonde hair.
The former Sydneysider arrived in Tamworth in 2008 after finishing her nursing degree at the University of Technology Sydney. She had landed a new-graduate job at Tamworth hospital.
"And never left," she said.
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Growing up, Kavanagh said she had "desperately" wanted to be a doctor. Her high school marks were good enough to pursue medicine.
But the married mother of two did not do well enough on the medical admissions examination known as the university clinical aptitude test, or the UCAT.
"I didn't make it through that first round," she said. "So I went straight into uni thinking I'll transfer down the track [to medicine]."
That never happened.
I just loved the caring for people ...
Kavanagh said that when she started her nursing degree, she realised she preferred it over medicine.
"I just loved the caring for people, and being that person at the bedside, more than the problem solver, and then they have to walk away and see the next person."
Loyal. hard-working. Happy. Kavanagh said those three words best described her.
She considers her children to be her greatest achievement, and loves the "family feel", as she put it, of OVA's women's side. Normally an attacking midfielder, she has been used in defence of late.
FC are a great team. They're a hard opponent.
Mushies finished the regular season in second place, and will play minor premiers Tamworth FC in the major semi-final at Gipps Street on September 9.
"FC are a great team. They're a hard opponent," Kavanagh said, adding: "If we all play together, and play for each other, then we can hopefully make it happen."
Approaching four decades on his planet, life has undoubtedly taught Kavanagh many lessons. But there is one that towers above all the others.
Be kind, she said, "because you never know what anyone else is going through".
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