Can you guys believe it’s been a month since I started my new job? I can’t.
That means I have successfully managed to get up (and start work on time) four Monday mornings in a row. This might not sound like a big achievement, but let’s not forget I’d been unemployed for five and a half years until I got this job. Getting up early on a Monday morning hasn’t been a feature in my life for a loooong time, but I’m adjusting. I think…
I uploaded a video about my new job, my cerebral palsy and my mental health the other day. Check it out!
Well, it’s just past midnight on January 2nd. I am pleased, and actually quite amazed to say that I managed to survive New Year without dissolving into a ball of anxiety, depression and self-loathing like I have done almost every year since I graduated.
If anything, I’m more motivated than ever.
It’s also my birthday. 27 years ago today I shocked (and probably panicked) everyone by deciding that I wanted to take my place in the world 14 weeks ahead of schedule. I got cerebral palsy for my eagerness.
I wish I could say this level of punctuality has followed me into my adult life, but I’d be lying.
For the past few years I haven’t wanted to do anything special for my birthday.
I never really gave that much thought when I was a kid, but now I’m older it feels pretty darn weird. I think it always will now. I mean, why would/should/do I celebrate a day that was probably awful for my family?
This year though, I’ve had a bit of a change of heart. I survived. My mum survived. It was touch and go for a while, but we made it. My dad also managed to come through the whole ordeal too.
My parents were told I’d need speech therapy. I didn’t.
My parents were told I might not crawl. I did. Within two weeks of them being told that.
They were told I might only be able to ‘walk around a supermarket at best’. I think you all know how wrong that turned out to be.
Not only did we all survive, but we stuck two fingers up to every expectation along the way.
And we still do that last part. Every. Single. Day.
I think that’s pretty freaking amazing.
I’m off to celebrate. Who’s with me?
It’s now been a week since ‘my episode’ of Employable Me series 2 aired in the UK and I’m still not sure I’ve managed to get my thoughts in order.
This week has been one of the busiest, longest, and most rewarding weeks of my life. My phone has hardly stopped buzzing with notifications from so many people, most of whom I’ve never met and probably never will, wanting to show support.
Honestly, there are so many things I want to say about what Employable Me has brought into my life, and probably will bring over the next few months. If I wrote about them all in detail then this would be the longest blog post ever. So, for now, I’m just going to post this little round up. Enjoy!
The Support I’ve received
I don’t think the enormity of the support I’ve been shown has sunk in for me yet and I don’t think it will for a while. But please know that I appreciate every single one of your messages. I’ve even screen-shotted a lot of them to look back on on my worst day, when I’m hurting and sore from my cerebral palsy, or when I feel like I’m worthless.
I’m sorry that I haven’t replied to all of them. I wish I could, but there are just so, so many it would be impossible. I’m still trying to get through as many as I can.
The Support I’ve given others
The most rewarding part of this whole process (and there have been a lot of them) is knowing that my choice to share my story has helped others. I’m going to include some of their stories here – with their permission.
The following is a DM I received from a lovely person on Twitter –
“Hiya. please may I just say something and I apologise if I come across the wrong way or sound patronising. I’ve had a rough few months and while watching your employable me episode I actually felt motivated to change myself for the better. I too have CP and after watching you and seeing that you went to university and got a degree and how you’ve approached people work experience made me realise that actually despite CP I can do things if I really apply myself and want to do them. Since the episode aired I’ve actually started composing letters to send to employers and companies for work and began making plans to have a meeting so I can attend university after having to defer last year, even looking at alternatives even if that course isn’t the best for me. So thank you.”
I had a blog post published on the Huffington Post!
I’ve also been lucky enough to have a blog about my experiences taking part in Employable Me published on The Huffington Post, which you can read here, if you haven’t already.
I also wrote a blog for Genius Within, (career psychologist Nancy Doyle’s website) on the power of the positive assessments which I undertook as part of the filming process. You can read that here.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s taken the time to watch the show, and to all the amazing people who worked so hard to make it happen.
There are so many stories that I want to tell you all in time. Some of them are still unfolding as I write this. I hope you all don’t mind waiting until I can find the head-space (and words) to write them.
Love,
Nic xx
Employable Me continues on Monday at 9pm on BBC2.
I’ll admit that I’d totally forgotten my consultant said she was going to refer me back to my usual physio department so they to give me a refresher course on all of the stretches I’m supposed to be doing.
We’d arranged it a while back when my pelvis pain was really bad. I’d been seen by a different department in the meantime (that my GP had referred me to) so I’d kind of assumed that would be that. I didn’t think they’d allow me to have this second lot of appointments once I mentioned this, so I was really grateful when they said I still still go in.
I was even happier when I found out that my new physio is also the same lady who gives me acupuncture. My previous physio retired earlier this year and I was a bit nervous about seeing somebody new when the previous lady knew me and my regular problems so well.
thankfully, my acupuncturist does too, so, even though she’s never actually given me physio I feel like we could hit the ground running.
It didn’t take her long to work out that my pelvis isn’t very well- aligned at the moment (one side is lower than the other) ,, and she told me that we were going to have to work on making the muscles around it stronger before we could work on the alignment issue.
One thing that I really liked what that she taught me the names of exercises I’ve been doing for years but never knew the names of. Well, it’s more likely that I’ve forgotten them, but I’m still pleased she took them time to tell me again.
It was one of those appointments where I came out feeling more sore than when I went into it, but I often find that these ones make me feel much better much faster.
I’m feeling really positive that we’ll do a lot of good work in these sessions.
I’m looking forward to my next appointment now.
viewfromawalkingframe 