Hello hello! It’s my first post of the new year and an overdue one. I apologise for not being active because the last three months has been such an up and down ride for me which I’ll explain later.

Tomorrow is such aa big day for me and if you haven’t heard, I will finally be starting work tomorrow. What work you may ask? For those who live in Australia, you guys should already know that tomorrow is the NSW State Election 2015. Well, I managed to get one day work with the NSW Electoral Commission as a Polling Place Assistant which is huge for me!!! How awesome is that guys? I know, there will be people thinking, why is this such a big deal for me?

For once, I’ve been trying to look for real work these last couple of years and it’s been difficult for me because of my depression. Oh, and when I mean real work, I mean like you actually get paid and it is very much different from the internships I have done in the past with SBS and BBC. The work I did with those companies was different because I was there for the experience and I didn’t get paid.

Of course, there was also my very first job…working in the food court for my uncle. Look, I did enjoy working there at that time but it wasn’t really for me. Imagine, working under pressure and serving many people during lunch hour, taking their orders and handling the cash. I have to admit, it did get stressful for me sometimes especially when I have really bad anxiety but looking back at it now, it was a good experience for me to work in the food industry.

Also, before I started working in the food court, it wasn’t actually a planned one so I had no intentions to work there. My uncle offered me to do work experience at his Chinese fast food shop. I was a bit hesitated at first because I wasn’t really interested in working in the food court but I was more into the TV/Movie industry. But because I never had a job, I had to start somewhere for my work career so I might as well do the work experience and that’s how it started from there.

Anyway, about the election. So how did I get work with the State election? My dad was looking through the NSWEC website and saw that they were accepting applications to work with them. To be honest, I was a bit anxious at first because I didn’t know what work I’d be doing but after talking to my parents about it, I decided to give it a go and also, the NSWEC actually encourage people with disability to apply for work which I really admire.

I went through the application and you know, it’s the usual stuff like you usually fill in like your background with what work you’ve done and if you have work in the state election before etc.. I sent my application to them online and this was back sometime in mid-February I think. It was quite an anxious wait because I didn’t know whether if I got accepted or not or if something went wrong until I finally got a phone call. I didn’t know what number it was and I didn’t know who was even calling so when I answered, the guy (who was very friendly) introduced himself to me and said he’s from the NSWEC. Right, and he said that he saw my application and he very impressed with it and that’s when I got the offer.

I actually couldn’t believe I was hearing. I just wanted to like scream and celebrate. Anyway, he said that they will send an email to me so I can look through the offer and I can either accept it or reject it and of course, I did accept it. That is how I was able to get work with NSWEC and It stills feel surreal to me at the moment. The work I will be doing is mainly helping them counting the votes, sorting out the ballots and help them pack up when the voting closes. It’s easy stuff. They even sent me this manual booklet which I have to go through and it’s a lot to remember, well, for me anyway.

I’m hoping everything goes well tomorrow. I’m super anxious but so excited at the same time. The thing I’m more anxious about is the unknown. I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know anyone there and what if I make a mistake? I guess I just have to remind myself to stay positive and everything will go fine. It’s normal to feel anxious about starting new work but it’s not normal that the anxiety will take over you. That’s what I’m starting to learn.

Thank you so much guys for the support. I really appreciated it and I really do mean that. Sorry again for the lack of updates on my blog. I’ve been really up and down lately because I’ve been dealing with stuff at the moment. I won’t go into details yet but probably in the next few posts, I’ll explain. Also, don’t worry, I am working on a few posts which will be up soon but unfortunately it is taking longer than I expected to work on. I’ll let you guys know how everything goes tomorrow.

Be random but stay safe!