Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER`
I began my working life in the city working as an auditor for T&G insurance because I was good at maths. I did not choose this work, I wanted to stay at school (to be honest I wanted to leave too) but dad said I had to go to work.
I was so young and hadn’t formed an opinion of myself yet, let alone formed any notion of what a suitable career might be for me. Just a girl!
Well that’s not exactly true, I had tried so many times…..
I had wanted to be a doctor since I could talk: No dad says, education is not for girls
I had expressed interest in becoming a nun; No he says, no bloody daughter of mine will be a penguin
My drawings of our new school uniform were chosen for display around the school and I thought I’d love to be a fashion designer. My brother, sign writer apprentice, told mum and dad I was not good enough at drawing, so that was the end of that.
I gave up trying, and at the age of 17 I finally gave in to just a girl and began work as an auditor, then in sales, until I married and had children. Motherhood suited me and I was good at it most of the time.
Time has flown, and along the way I’ve studied and done a lot of the things I set out to do with the skills I’d learnt. Now in my 60’s I still hear an instant no whenever I think I’ll (insert any new hobby, travel plan, study plan): It has taken a life time of undoing the early years conditioning and to battle against the inertia the ‘just a girl’ talk brings.
The future is huge, awesome in fact – I can do anything I choose to do. I travel, I write and share my adventures, and I get to share my wisdom with other women just like me. The early no’s I once heard taught me to be underwhelmed with life but I’ve turned them around to reveal of portal of grace I never knew existed.
My world is open and filled with adventures. Just a girl is now a woman who has lived, is living an amazing life. Two thirds of the way through, what’s next?