Her story proves that as long as you are open to different opportunities, you can find yourself taking a different path than imagined after the HSC.

Agronomy was always the plan, and Lucy catered her subjects accordingly.

"Ag was always the subject I had done really well in, I guess because that was always what I saw for my future," she explained.

"But then I started working in accountancy, and actually found I loved it - it's now what I want to do."

Doing a cadetship at Forsyths at the moment for a gap year, she was able to change her course to a bachelor of accounting.

One tip she has, is to throw in a wild card when you're choosing subjects for university, something that you normally wouldn't consider.

"Honestly, my best advice is put in a random course that you may not really think would work," Lucy said.

"I wish I put a bachelor of ag majoring in accounting. Out of all the ag subjects I didn't even think about accounting.

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"When you are doing subject selection, put a bit of variety in there because you just never know."

Her second piece of advice is to not focus all of your energy onto your favourite subject - spread it around evenly and schedule it accordingly.

And thirdly: take a gap year as "it's opened my mind up to other stuff," things she wouldn't have thought of before.

With formals officially given the green light this week, Lucy wished the studying students the best of luck - and to look forward to letting their hair down.

"The HSC is such a stressful thing, so it's good to know you have a formal at the end to look forward to ... if you stick to your goals you will do fine."