Introducing Me

A Little Background Info on Me….

Being that there are so many places one could start when introducing themselves, I’ve just sort of started somewhere around the beginning of what some may call adulthood….

Not being able to decide what I wanted to do after high school was one of the main factors which determined my main career path. My grades weren’t exactly what you would call ‘fantastic’, so my tertiary education options were somewhat limited. Naturally, my Mother wasn’t too impressed and when she had tired of my indecisiveness and seemingly lack of interest in my own future, she thrust some TAFE brochures under my nose and said, “Here…go to TAFE and study Business Administration! You’re really good at organising things…and talking on the phone…. you’d be a great Receptionist!” And off she went, muttering things like, “Yeah…she could be a Receptionist…PA, Secretary…. she could organise whole companies - get into the corporate sector! Yeah….” I enrolled at TAFE for the Diploma of Business (Administration) and studied full time whilst working casually in retail and hospitality.

I had almost finished my diploma, just needed to complete one unit of competency from cert IV and three or four units from the diploma level and that would be that….however, due to my contact study hours reducing and technicalities with Centrelink (welfare) payment eligibility criteria, I was switched from Student to Job Seeker and before I knew it I found myself in a full time admin role that left me no time to complete my diploma. I ended up a highly efficient, well trained administration allrounder with no more than a cert III under my belt.

Minimum qualifications only held me back so far, I moved into Job Services starting as a Receptionist and was soon promoted to Consultant. I had a caseload of 90-100 clients and was responsible for helping them gain employment. Fours years later I started with a larger company and was managing two specialist caseloads simultaneously in my first 6 months (they were experiencing some recruiting difficulties). I was smashing it!...

On A More Personal Note….

Whilst employed at the larger company I had started seeing someone, however the relationship quickly deteriorated, and I became a DV victim. It took me two years but I was finally able to end the relationship, I moved back in with my mother, had an intervention order placed on him and started to move on with my life. Less than three months had passed when I was involved in a car accident on my way home from work one evening. I suffered a back injury which left me bed ridden and dosed to the eyeballs on Endone for the next 3 weeks. I tried going back to work, but sitting down was what triggered my pain the most…so I was driving 45 minutes to get to work, only to be faced with a further 8 hours sitting at a desk. It was unbearable. I was frequently absent from work and performed poorly on days I did go. My employer was less than supportive and it became quite an unpleasant environment. I left that job and accepted a role with another Job Service Provider, thinking it was closer to home so should be easier to manage, but I continued to have difficulties and was not offered a role beyond my probationary period.

I was a highly successful Employment Services Case Manager for 8 years, then found myself sitting on the other side of the desk, assigned to a case manager with so little experience that I had to coach HER through the appointment process. I had already been through some pretty tough times prior to this, but being an unemployed chronic pain sufferer was a whole new kind of tough. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Then I met John. We’ve been together now for three and half years and he has contributed to my life in the most amazing and positive ways. He has guided me through much personal development, as well as connecting me with an Osteopath who tailored a treatment plan that was so successful even he was surprised! I have improved far beyond the expectations of any of the medical professionals that assessed me after the car accident. I still have a back injury, I still experience pain, but it no longer suffocates my life.

The last couple of years I have been able to focus on returning to work. Working from home appealed to me as this meant I had the flexibility and freedom to manage my condition whilst still generating an income. With the vast myriad of training available online I was able to start my own drop shipping business, I also opened a second business as a network marketer selling environmentally friendly energy plans.

In March 2018 my sister in law offered me her position at an after hours school care facility as cook – she was needing to leave the job to focus on other priorities but couldn’t find anyone else she would trust enough to put in as much care and effort as she had. Based on that merit I was told I wold only need to complete the RAN training and I could start the very next day!

I love cooking and I love working with the kids, they’re the most interesting and fun group of people I have ever worked with. But this alone isn’t enough financially and John and I continue to look for other means of income online. We want to secure our future so that we can have our own family and live out our lives together.

That, in a nutshell, is what brought me here. There are many more stories to tell, including an intro for John that will eventually be posted here as well. I hope that I can become a part of the steem family and share as much with you as you all seem to share with each other.

Thanks for reading 😊