She's spent the last decade as a teacher across Denison College's two campuses, Kelso High and Bathurst High, but on the side, Jude Murphy has been writing about her life and experiences, much of which has resulted in her debut book.
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Ms Murphy's memoir, Scrapbooks and Broken Strings, explores the many highs and lows of growing up, including the challenges of young adulthood, managing grief and navigating friendships and relationships, as well as the challenges of motherhood and the impact of postnatal depression.
"I had a really difficult pregnancy with my daughter, Sienna [now 10], which actually resulted in me developing post-natal psychosis," she said.
"As a single mother, it was a struggle to get back to work [Kelso High at the time] while I was dealing with my mental health, and during that period was when I seriously started to write this memoir."
Ms Murphy said a key section of the memoir focuses on dealing with childhood trauma and the nature of how a profoundly distressing event can leave a significant impact.
"When I was 10, my sister was hit by a car and killed right in front of me, which had a profound impact on my family and the guilt and trauma of that event continued to affect me as I grew up," she said.
"I gave the memoir to some work colleagues to read, and many said they were in tears by page four, but I had to reassure them that it gets better."
Ms Murphy said there's also plenty of funny and relatable recollections touched on in the memoir.
"There's plenty of stories from the hard-partying university days, my travels overseas as a backpacker, and towards the end, it finishes with a strong message of hope," she said.
"Some days, we focus on the good bits; other days, the bad; but at the end of the day, the core message of Scrapbooks and Broken Strings is that life is very much a measure of perception and how you choose to reflect on past experiences."
Ms Murphy hopes the memoir will especially strike a chord with women who too have suffered from postnatal depression, a condition she feels warrants greater discussion and awareness.
"I was in a postnatal psychiatric ward when Sienna was a year old, and I've expressed this honestly and candidly in the memoir to help resonate with readers who may have had similar experiences," she said.
"It's something that's easy to feel ashamed of, but hopefully further discussion will encourage greater awareness and support."
Scrapbooks and Broken Strings is available at www.ginninderrapress.com.au.
Ms Murphy has more books in the works.
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Sam Bolt
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
"I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them." -Nick Cave
