My life has been full of surprises. Last year, I found myself in a different continent, on the other side of the planet. I was visiting family, but due to Covid-19 and quarantine restrictions, I was forced to stay away from the UK for 4 months. I wasn’t able to come back to work when they reopened and I was made redundant, as has happened with many people in the UK and abroad within this past year.
During this period in my life, I have thought a lot about who I am and what I want to do in life. I’m 33 years old and financially unstable. All my work experience over the past 17 years has been in hospitality - an industry where I was dependent on month-to-month payments, which was very emotionally damaging. Even if I did go back into it, the industry has been destroyed due to the pandemic. When I came back to the UK, I decided that I needed a plan to escape from this sector. I found myself a room, I asked for help from the Jobcentre for the first time in my life and I applied for Universal Credit.
Since then, I’ve been trying to upgrade my old skills in graphic design, which I originally trained in. I’ve created social media content, attended webinars and have tried to understand how to connect with people through creativity. I have also been able to work on my real passion, which is model making and creating artistic miniatures.
However, my landlady has started harassing myself and the other tenants in my property. We’ve been issued illegal informal eviction notices and she has begun to implement very stressful and confusing rules in the house. All this has caused me to experience many problems in my mental health that have also had an impact on my physical health. At this stage in my life, when I'm already planning big changes in my career, I find myself feeling very unsettled. Now I really want to move somewhere stable - to have my own corner that feels safe. One day I even hope to buy a small narrow boat to live on the canal, and focus on my creative business.
It’s not easy to admit that you are in a position where you need help. But it brings safety knowing that I'm not alone in these difficult times.