I have been a volunteer worker since before I probably knew what it meant. It just seemed natural to want to help those less fortunate.
I have volunteered in Israel, Vietnam, India, Cambodia and Australia. I have been a carer in disability homes, an art teacher, a sports manager, a teacher at isolated schools for migrant children, a life skills coach for street kids and a community development worker for the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).
In 2010 I became the Manager of Tiny Toones Cambodia and my whole world changed. My heart got broken in to a thousand pieces and put back together over and over by the slum’s most precious street kids. I sat by their side through drug addiction, family violence, pain, recovery, relapse, slavery, corruption and poverty. They, ‘my kids’ taught me about unconditional love, respect, honour, determination and friendship. They taught me about family when they chose me as their mum, aunty and big sister.
“You should be a writer,” I kept hearing from friends and colleagues. I was a story-teller, definitely. I loved public speaking and have travelled on stages across Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Singapore and even the first ever Tedx Phnom Penh in 2011 and interviewed in newspapers, radio and television including the highly-regarded ABC Australia Network with journalist Kate Arnott.
In November 2012 I went to Laos for my first writers retreat purely because it felt right – even though I was broke and terrified. I don’t remember making any decisions since. Things just happened. Do what you love and the rest will come. I met incredible authors who became mentors and I fell madly in love with the pen. Eventually, I tore myself away from my beloved Cambodian family and moved to a small island in southern Thailand to focus on writing. This is when I truly felt I could call myself an author.
On this new island home, I was asked “Aren’t you a counsellor?” and soon I had a job too. Do what you love and the rest will come.
Now I sit in my office (by that I mean on my balcony) looking out into the jungle, writing and editing. Going to work as a counsellor is only a hop, skip and jump over the hill. Life is beautiful.
Do you what you love …
and the rest will come.
Now, back to my office….
