Vindication!

Just over a dozen years after an off the cuff conversation with my friend Heather I have finally realised a dream. At that time I was trying and failing to get a job as a teacher. I had been trying for nearly 3 years and despite 150 odd applications and 18 interviews teaching had given up on me. Was I ready to give up on it? I had no choice.

On that afternoon in the summer of 2002 she asked if I would consider working in mental health. My response was yes but not for the enemy. She asked what I wanted to do. To be a consultant of course. Her answer was telling "you have to start at the bottom". And so I did.

Held back by "what would you know?" "What qualification do you have for that?" "You're not a nurse or social worker" and all myriad of barriers, somehow I landed the job at the university in 2007.

Today I came of age. I have passed the MSc in Mental Health Practice. It is a course undertaken almost exclusively by psychiatrists. It is proof after all these years I do know what I'm talking about. Where I go from here who knows but I feel utterly vindicated that my 25 year journey has finally been recognised. It is but a piece of paper but it is my piece of paper that says fuck you to those who doubted me!

I Heard a Voice.