I met Sharon through a mutual friend of ours who is also interviewed on here. Even though we only hung out a few times, Sharon has this kind, caring and calm energy about her which kind of makes you want to be a better person. Not an easy question to answer, my journey into social work was the interweaving of the journey of my mind and my heart.
Growing up I was fascinated with national and international politics and economics. By age 14 I had memorised every country in the world, in alphabetical order. By 16 I was captain of the debate team and leading the North Shore youth council.
Spending my time meeting with councillors, writing submissions and running community events. I skipped Year 13 to jump straight into a Law and Politics degree. I was eager to become a career politician. But as much as politics fascinated me, it was also dissatisfying. I hated the games people played in politics. In my first year of uni, I looked around to see all these middle and upper-middle class kids talking about how great their leadership skills were and how they were going to shape the world to help people.
I took a hard look at myself and decided that if I really wanted to help others, I needed to learn how to help. So I rocked up to the student service desk and asked if they had a degree that could teach me how to help people.
I also have a very close relationship with God. I prayed about this decision, and felt very clearly that this was what God wanted me to do.
