The Beginning - Who am I?

 Get comfy – as I want to tell you my story…

 

A not so very long time ago (4 years to be exact) in a galaxy pretty much like this one (Ok I may have stretched the truth there – it was this one)…

 

At the height of Covid-19…

 

I started my career as an Australian Public Servant – I started with my current place of work... A mere shell of a person from what I had been – slowly re-building my faith and trust in people and taking the time to learn about myself and what I had considered my limitations.

 

I am what is termed a ‘late life diagnosis’ for ASD-level 1, ADHD & Social Anxiety – I will admit I now wear them well and with pride.

 

When I first started, I was only just beginning my journey of understanding my diagnosis as it was still fresh (I’d only known for roughly 8 months by this point) and getting to know the real me, and what my now unmasked mind and body could and could not do and whether or not I could cope in a full time working environment as I was coming to terms with the possibility of perhaps not being able to, judging from my past experiences.

 

Looking at my resume I have what looks like a long history of job hopping – chopping and changing every few years and I will admit that doesn’t look good – and I was fresh from a previous job that I had worked at for less than a year – with this in mind as an employee and as a person I was a work in progress that my current employers took a chance on.

 

Since starting my current job, I have discovered not what I am limited to doing but how far I can progress and thrive with the right supports in place. I have gone from non-ongoing - contract work to being hired full time, have achieved a promotion from an APS 3 to an APS 4 and I have successfully completed a face to face, panel interview and have been approved as an APS 5 and am sitting... waiting patiently... for a full-time facilitation role. I have been given numerous opportunities for facilitation and roles within forums – Innovation Forum, Centre and Community Forum, Inclusion and Diversity Forum and Digital Champions Network (which I recently received a highly commended national award for) and meetings with upper management.

 

My life is completely different because I work with a supportive, inclusive employer – I have come to terms with who I really am and feel safe, supported, accepted, and respected enough to be who I am and display the side of me that I otherwise might have tried to hide.

 

The people and the culture have helped me to grow as a person and to be the living definition of what can be achieved with the right people and management standing in your corner.