One Ro, Many Roads

Dear Peeps, As you can tell from my posts and social media , I am a little different. I like to interact with the world. I will stop and talk to anyone on a whim💫, I will let a homeless woman sleep 🛌in my hotel room on a freezing cold night and I will fight the good fight 🥊if I believe injustice is occurring. People find this strange and because it takes them outside of their comfort zone, they make negative comments to try to bring me back to what they believe is "normal". I have had family and friends say things to me like "You're an embarrassment", "You really should not post that stuff" and "People are laughing at you". I am glad I have such good relationships with these people that they feel they can share anything with me but what they don't realise is we have that relationship because of the type of person I am. If I was "normal", they would never feel safe to say this to me. They would be too scared by my reaction.😱...

Hey Peeps, Today I want to talk about something that’s been really on my mind for a while; teachers . Or, more accurately, what teachers are "expected" to do every single day. Spoiler alert 😉 we just want to teach. That’s it. That’s all. But sadly, life in education has become a multi-tasking circus 🎪 and honestly, we’re all feeling the burnout. First off, let me clear one thing up: teachers don’t want more pay 💰. Nope. We want less workload. (Yes, less. Not more.) Because we’re constantly drowning in paperwork 📝, admin forms, meetings 🗣️, and a million other things that pull us away from what we really love; teaching. You see, we’re not just educators. Oh no. These days, we’re practically social workers 🧑‍⚕️, data analysts 📊, social media marketing geniuses 📸, and sometimes even stand-up comedians (okay, maybe not that last one... but I think I am funny😂). And for what? Because someone higher up thinks it’s fair to ask us to do all of it. Let’s start with the data...

Dear Peeps, I had the most awesome night at the AFL a few weeks ago. And it was not just because The Lions won. It was because of the people I met. You all know I love a chat, especially to strangers. Firstly, I started talking to 🏃. 🏃is in his 70s and has run over 100 marathons. I felt good having run one, but he has run over 100. His mental strength must be phenomenal. I loved hearing about specific runs like the Boston Marathon. 🏃told a good tale. He then introduced me to 🦁 and H. 🦁 is his loving partner (not their first marriage, there is hope for me yet) and H is from Paupa New Guinea and it was her first AFL game. H was loving it and she could not have come with better people. 🦁 runs a Facebook page for Lions Fan and you can only post positive comments or she kicks you go 🦵🥊. Love your work 🦁. Because of this she has Lion's players wives on the page as they want to see positive news about their men - no trolls or keyboard warriors. Back to the gift story. A few times...

Dear Peeps, It is the words you dread to hear out of anyones mouth, especially your Mum's. My Mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer just before Christmas. She is fit and healthy and in her early 70s. Another friend, that very same week, was also diagnosed in his late 40s. He is fitter and healthier than anyone I know. Cancer does not discriminate. Young, old, sick and healthy. And it is someone's Mum, Sister, Brother, Dad or child. What broke my heart though was my Mum saying to me - I am sorry, you just did not need another thing right now. Even though she was about to go into the toughest fight of her life, she was worried about me. My Mum has always been my rock and I knew that she needed all her energy to focus on herself. Dad and Mum were inseparable, I wanted to take her to some appointments to give Dad a break, but he would not hear of it. In typical Dad fashion, he arrived almost an hour early to every appointment. Sometimes getting a cancelation phone call because the ch...

 Dear Peeps, It is a very simple question - when did you stop having fun? I mean the type of fun that makes you smile until your face hurts or laugh until you cry🤣 (or maybe pee a little). I realised I stopped having fun quite awhile ago and that is when my mental health issues started. Fun is different for everyone; for me it includes being a little bit cheeky, breaking the rules (I don't really but I think I am :) and just being me. A childlike me. Some fun I have had recently includes: 🎠Riding a bucking mechanical bull 🎽Going in the running races with my students at the school athletics carnival (I did not come first or last) 🛴Riding a scooter around the city These are very simple things but they brought me back to my childhood. The innocent joy of a child is not something you can replace. It is amazing but as we become adults we let this go. We have bills to pay, dishes to wash, kids to look after but what about us? We lose ourselves and we lose our ability to have fun...

Dear Peeps, I have been very lucky so far to have been able to find somewhere to stay each night either housesitting, staying at my best mates, going away on holidays or the random night at my parents when a bed is free. I am currently staring down the barrel of a few nights with nowhere to stay. When I have told people why I can't live in my own home, most people have been very generous and tried to offer some help. The one which brought tears to my eyes was my old house cleaner, who became a friend. K listened to my story and then shared hers with me. She was truly homeless at one stage, sleeping in her car or on the beach, whilst her kids were in foster care. She had been a drug addict and fled a DV situation and left her kids with the authorities whilst she got herself together. She was so open and vulnerable to share this with me. She made me promise I would never sleep in my car or out rough. She now raises her grandkids and still has two of her own grown children living with...