A Narrative to Success

Ok- this is going to be difficult. 

Can you pin-point the moment that lead you to the rest of your life? 

At what point did you decide that this was the route you wanted to take in your life? 

What's your "why"? 

So- I'll start. It's luck. I'm lucky. At primary school I shouted shut up at a teacher because she said that I was becoming one of the "naughty" kids. Next thing I knew, I moved school and I was in the special needs class. Using 90's terminology - I was a thicko! My mum would say then that I was "bored". 

The truth was I wanted to be in the special needs class; you could play with Lego and do hands on things, rather than boring Maths and English. 

Following this, high school didn't get any better; I scraped along the bottom. Then I left school and shit got real. 

I did Travel and Tourism for a year before chucking that in. I needed to find a job. With no qualifications and no real plan, I worked in a local pub as a pot washer. 

Then I worked in a tool shop whilst doing an apprenticeship.

Around this time I found my passion for running. 

For an hour or two most nights I could jump into a "portal" and go on an adventure. 

I could put my headlight on in the winter and run to the far reaches of the countryside lanes. In the summer I could explore the woods. Running was escapism. Not just running, fitness was an escape. A "portal" into an interesting world away from the mundane. 

Following this I did my Personal Training qualifications and found myself working in a gym. The curse of working your passion is that you get fed up of it. You get fed up of the politics, the judgements that surround being a PT and it was becoming increasingly hard work. So I left. 

I then wanted to specialise in an area, and that's where I chose mental health. Off the back of this role I was given the opportunity to do a nursing degree. In 2010 if someone said I was going to be a nurse, I would have laughed. I probably would have made some ill equipped sexist joke (I now have pledged my support for Men in Nursing Together - but that's another blog post!). 

I guess ultimately, where I am now as been down to luck. I got bored, I moved on and I held my nerve until the opportunity presented itself. 

I can't say I'm at the pinnacle of where I want to be- but I feel a lot more content than that 18 year old back in 2010!