What was your first ever job?
I worked at a childcare centre mainly in the kindergarten rooms. I started as a trainee in year 10, when I was 16, completing the certificate in early childhood education. It was a pretty cool job, I got to have fun and be a big brother to a lot of the kids there. I learnt so much about life, like how it is to work full-time and also learnt a lot about myself through everyone who was around me.
How did you go from there to here?
One day at the start of last year my family decided we were going to move from Victoria to Darwin which was pretty scary but again felt like I learnt a lot about myself and a week after I got here I got a job at Youthworx NT as a support worker which I’m really enjoying and I’m learning new things everyday.
What's something different about your local community?
The community I lived in from when I was about 10, I didn’t like very much. The people there weren’t very accepting of how people really are which makes people pretend to be someone they aren’t which I didn’t agree with – that was a big part of the reason we left.
But in Darwin, everyone I have come across has been really supportive of me and people don’t really care about what others do in their spare time.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I am working on finishing my TAFE course and getting more confident at work and building better relationships with the young people I work with.
What’s a tip for someone trying to do what you’re doing?
I would say be yourself: that’s the thing that has helped me a lot. Be willing to learn things from anyone, and take on criticism and work on it to get better at it.
What do you want to learn next?
I’m learning lots about the NYEB, and I would like to work towards another Certificate in the future but I’m not sure what that is right now.