I’m gonna try and keep this one short - the main reason is that there is a lot of pain points within this post that I could delve into some very deep detail and this could easily end up being long enough to be a book.
So to cut it short but to set the scene this post has to look back 13 years ago - to when I was only 12 and even back then I was a highly optimistic person about what I could achieve and have believed that holding back opportunity to those with potential
Now Secondary school wasn’t the most of fun for me at all - I had self diagnosed at this point that I was suffering with a mild yet manageable form of depression. I chose not to discuss this with doctors or counsellors as at that point I just wanted to get through it as best as I could off my own back and for this reason alone i was very much an underachiever at school coming out with GSCE’s that weren’t close to those that I could have achieved.
This is what has lead me to drive myself to continue to better myself even through some very difficult situations over the last 9 years - as not to feel that I had become weak in my own mind, so I tell myself to “just get on with it” and that “this is only a small part of the future - keep on pushing and you can and will achieve it”
So to summarise the last 9 years in a few bullet points
- I’ve been made homeless at least 5 times
- I’ve sofa surfed for what has equated to well over 2 years
- I’ve even ended up having to sleep in my car for multiple days at a time.
- I’ve been faced with the age old - “no experience yet not able to get experience” whilst trying to attain formidable employment
- I’ve worked unhealthy hours including an almost 6 month spell where I had worked up to 120hours each week.
- I also started my family whilst I was still very young & people are still shocked each time I told them that I was 25 and have 2 children
- Other family related things So yes in summarisation the last decade can really only be summarised as being a rollercoaster of events - yet through it all I am still standing and pushing and doing my damn well best to prove that I can achieve what I want to achieve.
There are only a handful of people that have really helped me along the way and these people do know how much that they have helped.
The point of this post is that no matter the person in front of you there is a much bigger story that you may not know all the details about - all you are seeing is a small representation of that person so don’t make a judgement about that book by its cover instead take the time to understand the story contained within the pages.