I’ve been very quiet this last month and a bit and I have a very good reason for this. I’ve been super busy doing written assignments and fixing up the garden (pacing myself in 15 minute blocks) so I could do video assessments outside, learning how to edit videos and also going back to Tai Chi. So something had to go, so I haven’t been writing much here. But I’m back now!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that in my pre-FibroTroll days I was a Veterinarian. I’m still registered, so I’m technically still a Vet, but I haven’t worked since September 2012. I struggled a lot with the loss of my career. It was a very big part of my identity and I loved it. Sure, it has its bad bits, but on the whole, I actually liked going to work and doing my job.
I still haven’t fully accepted that I may not ever be a vet again, but I am slowly getting better at saying the words “I used to be a vet” and being somewhat okay with this. I have a whole post on this, that I’ve been working on for a while on and off, and I will post it one day.
But the reason for all that assessment work, is because I have been working on a Certificate IV in Celebrancy. I was really running out of time to finish before my enrolment expired. I already had to get an extension because of the damn FibroTroll, and I can’t get another one, so it just had to happen. Today, I submitted my last assignment – with a day and a half to spare! So fingers crossed I don’t have any re-submissions to do!
I decided to do this about 15 months ago -around the time of that ridiculous marriage equality debate and postal survey that should never have happened. The politicians should just have done their damn job and passed the Bill without wasting so much time and money and inflicting hate speech on vulnerable people. Imagine how much that $166M would have helped our hospitals and schools! I am not ashamed of being a supporter of Marriage Equality and I really wanted to do more to show my support.
I also needed to find a vocation that I am passionate about, that I will enjoy, and one that I can work around the FibroTroll. After doing the course, I am confident that this is something I am going to enjoy, and not wanting to blow my own horn too much, I think I will be good at it too.
Having a career path again, one where I can offer a valuable service to society (and maybe bring in a little extra cash into the household) is such a wonderful feeling. Hopefully, in a month or two I will have had my registration approved and be a fully fledged Marriage Celebrant!
The other thing that doing this course has reminded me of, is that I really do have some amazing friends and family. People have come to my house to do mock interviews, to perform a complete wedding ceremony from start to finish and a rehearsal beforehand (and coming to re-film a bit I wasn’t happy with!) and to perform a full naming ceremony complete with their gorgeous little bub! Some of them even came to more than one assessment! To all of them, I am profoundly grateful.
My Knight in Tarnished Armour was there every step of the way, helping prepare, arguing with my printer and scanner for me, helping feed people, being videographer, and cleaning up and taking care of me afterwards when we knew I would be paying the FibroTroll’s toll. I honestly do not know what I would do without him.
My mother has also been wonderful, she has come and helped cook for people, printed things when the Knight didn’t win the argument with the printer, hemmed tablecloths and helped out in so many ways. Then she happily played mother-of-the-bride to a person she had never meet, then grandmother to a baby she had never met!
Thank-you simply isn’t a strong enough phrase to cover the gratitude I have to all of these people.
