#30YearsRolling – Day 8/30 – Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of my Injury

 

One mission was accomplished and the next awaited.

 

I had well above the previous year’s T.E.R. for the Sport Studies degree I wanted to do, I just had to wait for an offer of a place from the university.

 

Before the internet (that makes me feel so old!), the way you found out if you had been offered a place initially was via the newspaper.

 

On the day those offers were in the newspaper there were loads of anxious 17 and 18 year olds lined up waiting for the newsagents or service stations to open at the crack of dawn to get a paper.

 

I actually cannot remember how I got mine, or at what time of the day I got it.

 

I do remember looking up my name and seeing a first round offer for a place in Sport Studies.

 

The next mission had been accomplished and I felt great!

 

The university was too far from home to be practical or affordable to commute by taxi and the public transport options were terrible.

 

For these reasons, I decided that I would defer my place for a year so that I could get a job, I was aiming for a 12 month traineeship, have driving lessons and get a car so I could drive myself to and from uni the following year.

 

I registered with Commonwealth Rehab Service to help me with driving lessons and looking for jobs.

 

Most of the job search I did myself though.

 

At that time it was buying the Saturday and Wednesday newspapers as well as looking in the local newspapers’ classifieds for recruitment ads.

 

When I found ones that looked suitable I cut them out and then went through them one by one, prioritising which ones to apply for in which order.

 

There were hardly any close to home so I found that most of the jobs were Sydney CBD office junior roles that sounded boring as but were a foot in the door.

 

I made it a policy to never disclose that I had a disability at any point in the application process.

 

Even when called for an interview I still didn’t disclose as I didn’t want any preconceptions to be formed about me prior to someone meeting me.

 

This meant that I had to do some covert research to find out if the places I was going for an interview in, and potentially working in, had wheelchair access.

 

Sometimes this meant a phone call to their receptionist to ask about access without identifying myself.

 

Other times it meant doing a drive by if local or asking Dad to walk past and have a look if it was close to his office in the city.

 

It was a lot of work, and there were times were I just turned up and found out on the day.

 

There were times when this ended up a complete disaster, finding either the building wasn’t accessible or that I came out of an interview busting to go to the bathroom to find there were no accessible bathrooms in the entire building.

 

And then there were the times that I knew from the way the person who was interviewing me looked me up and down when we first met that I had no chance.

 

The majority of my school leaver peers I was competing with had also had the benefit of part time work through high school that I wasn’t able to do.

 

The collection of rejection letters, that I called the “Thanks for coming” letters, grew by the week and it was a lot of effort to stay motivated to keep going.

 

Traveling in to the city by train for the interviews was awful and I have no idea how I could have managed it on a daily basis but I kept showing up

 

There weren’t any job leads coming through agencies or the rehab service either and I did get despondent at times.

 

One day, while looking through the job ads in the local paper, I saw an ad for a Certificate I in Retail course being offered locally for people who were unemployed.

 

I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some additional skills and meet new people so I called up to enquire.

 

I was asked to come in for a meeting to discuss the course and whether I would be eligible.

 

It was at this meeting, after a quick chat about my background and career goals, that the woman interviewing me looked me right in the eye and said “people in wheelchairs don’t work in retail.”

 

I was not as resilient as I am now back then and I burst into tears on the spot and excused myself from her office.

 

After the initial upset I was really pissed off and I put in a complaint about her.

 

In the following week I received a call offering me a place in the course and got started soon after.

 

There was a feistiness in me that wanted to prove her wrong.

 

I did the course, had a great time, learned great skills and even had a very accommodating retail store who offered me a work placement after going store to store asking.

 

At the end of the course the woman who had earlier been so judgemental told me I’d done a great job and I was one of the best students they had through the course.

 

I added that qualification to my resume and continued the job hunt.

 

To kill time mid week I often went to the local club and spent the afternoon in the TAB having a few bets.

 

I’d stopped drinking by then but still enjoyed having my $1 bets and was definitely the odd one out in there.

 

It was one afternoon that I was there that I received a call from the rehab service asking me to go for an interview for a Receptionist role at a local engineering company.

 

I was in the couldn’t be bothered zone and after so many knock backs thought it wouldn’t be worth the effort so I initially started to fob them off, until they told me that the company specifically wanted the role to be filled by a person with a disability and had struggled to find someone of the standard they desired.

 

I went in for the interview the next day with an additional confidence that I hadn’t in other interviews.

 

I knew that the thing that was likely the reason I didn’t get the other jobs was a reason that I could get this job.

 

 

The song that represents this time for me is “Better” by The Screaming Jets.

 

#rebirthday #ToMyYoungerSelf

 

Follow hashtag #30YearsRolling to read this series as it is published. You are welcome to comment on and share these posts

 

 

Stacey Copas, Author of “How To Be Resilient”, helps shift the way people perceive and respond to uncertainty, change and adversity, helping them to see opportunities where they once saw only obstacles.

The world is rapidly changing, people are having to do more with less, are more stressed and have less balance in their lives.

To be fulfilled and successful in embracing the uncertain and changing world, it is essential to develop resilience to see and act on the opportunities that uncertainty and change present.

Stacey is available to present or coach online/remotely/virtually across all time zones. Book via bookings@staceycopas.com