Going on walks and listening to music makes me really happy. I'm also always smiling when I get the chance to see friends and family.
My housing issues started when I was younger. I had a relationship breakdown with my mother. It started affecting my siblings and I realised the best thing to do at the time was to move out and go into the care system. Fortunately, our relationship is so much better now. I'm actually bubbling with my family as I now live alone.
When I turned 18 and moved into independent housing there were a number of things I needed to learn to support myself. I had to learn how to budget and navigate lots of new things, and unfortunately I ended up in arrears. I had to work really hard to get out of it; it was probably the hardest thing I've had to do!
I want to be a support worker because it's a step in the right direction of the career I want to pursue, which is teaching. I have a lot of first-hand experience working with kids. Everything from babysitting, to being a youth leader at church, to having worked in a special educational needs drama school. It was quite a eureka moment when I realised I wanted to pursue a career supporting children. While working in my old roles, colleagues and customers always said that people and children in particular felt comfortable around me. It just made sense. Kids find comfort in talking to me about their problems and maybe it's because I lived through a number of things when I was younger too.
It feels amazing knowing people want to support me. If I'm honest it's quite overwhelming because I've never had this before. I always had to figure things out for myself, but I don't have to anymore. There's someone there to support me through it and give me advice. I'm really grateful for that.