Opportunities!

I’m a believer that opportunities are as much luck as hard work. You can work damn hard and be eternally unlucky, so why can’t you work hard but also catch a really lucky break? 

I’m fairly sure that’s what happened to me. I started work in London, kept my ear to the ground and was honest enough with my new colleagues about exactly why I was there.

At the same time I found out about a talk by the curator of The Gordon Museum on the wax models of Joseph Towne (See here for more info!) at the Florence Nightingale Museum and knew that I had to go. I bought a ticket and tried to hush the anxiety building in my chest about going to an event alone.

You see, I have always and will always suffer from not quite crippling social anxiety. I will never let it stop me doing anything, but it does mean I have a tendency to worry myself into a big ball of stress with stomach problems before anything. I’ve come to almost accept this is part of my preparation process but that doesn’t mean others don’t find it very strange!

However, at some after work drinks I’d worked myself into a state over, I was talking to a colleague who said she would love to come too. I encouraged her to buy a ticket there and then and the date was set. This was awesome, I got to hang out with my new colleague and friend while easing my anxiety about it.

Then I had some fantastic news while on holiday for my 30th birthday at Disneyland. Yes, I went to Disney for my 30th. The mortuary manager text to let me know that there was a job coming up at the local hospital. It wasn’t a trainee post but it was a mortuary assistant role and it would be another fabulous step towards my dream.

I came home, applied as soon as the job opened and waited to hear. This time I hadn’t got my hopes set on anything, well I told myself that. Then some amazing things happened very quickly. I visited the mortuary at the hospital where I worked and made some great acquaintances, I got an interview for the job at the local hospital and I went to the talk.

If anything, I can only say that when opportunities come your way just take them. I didn’t know that any of this would have happened but I grasped each chance and although nothing was concrete it led to experiences that altogether the led to a great thing.