~ Living my life with COLOUR ~

I always knew there was something not quite right with me and this gave me a lot of doubt in myself but I could never pin point what the real problem was. From a young age I have struggled with reading difficulty’s and I hated leaning. When I was 15, I was asked if I had heard of Irlen Syndrome, which I hadn’t but this made me curious and I did a lot of research into it. Later on, that month I went to get tested and I was diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome. Irlen Syndrome is a visual processing problem which appears to be caused by a defect in one of the visual pathways that carries messages from the eye to the brain. I went through colour testing to find out which colour made my eyes happier, at first my colour was green but 12 months later my colour changed to dark brown and that is still my current colour.

Before I was diagnosed, School was near impossible. After 15 minutes of reading I would get headaches, sore eyes and show ADHA like symptoms. I couldn’t sit still, my mind felt like it was going to explode because it was working much harder then what the average persons mind would be. The best I can explain the experience is imagine you were flying a plane, and all of a sudden, your engines die, they catch on fire and your about to crash into a wall. In the 10 seconds that feels like an eternity, you are panicking like any sane person would be. You can’t think straight, a million things running through your mind yet your mind is totally blank…. But in reality, to the average person without Irlen’s is simply manufacturing a paper plane to stay in the air for as long as possible. Bad choice of words but you get the idea, the amount of activity going on in my brain was constantly giving me panic attacks.

Now I have tinted glasses, their job is to block light out of my eyes so that it calms my eyes and brain. With them they make white paper darker so that I can read the words without the brightness of the paper distracting my eyes. I now have more confidence in myself, I don’t have nearly as many ‘Meltdowns’ as I use to, I love studying and learning about new things. However, when I was diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome I was put on the more severe end of the scale. When I read, I can only see five letters at a time which makes it so easy to lose my place and makes me slow at reading.

But glasses don’t fix it all for me, I would say with my glasses now it improves my disability about 70-80% and if I take my glasses off when I am in a bright area, I almost immediately feel like vomiting. I could not live without my glasses, they are my best friend, they make me happier, they make more capable of leaning and they give my life COLOUR!

~ First Baby Goats for the Year ~

Welcome to the world little ones, these beauties are now one week old and going strong. There is one set of girl twin and a boy and girl twins, two brown and two white. Unfortunately, the twin girls weren’t drinking from their mum and were having some troubles so we were greatly worried they wouldn’t make it. We started milking the mum to put into bottles and bottle feeding them which was a great success, within the first 24 hours they were more active and happier. Currently we are bottle feeding them four times per day, first at 6am then 10am, 2pm and 6pm. They aren’t out of the woods yet but are doing very well and we have high hopes that they will be ok. We are still deciding on their names.

~ Australia Day, 2019 Young Citizen of the Year (Bundaberg Region) ~

I am honoured to announce that I have won the 2019 Young Citizen of the Year for the Bundaberg Region! I was amazed when I found out I had been nominated and won this award as the news came out of the blue but what a wonderful surprise! I just want to thank the people who nominated me & the panel for selecting me. It’s been a hard couple of weeks keeping it a surprise from everyone but yesterday, receiving this incredible award, it was worth the wait. I can’t thank my Friends, Family, Bundaberg Riding for the Disabled & the community enough for all their wonderful support they have given me. I was worried I wasn’t going to top last year’s Awards & Amazing experiences but Achieving this in the first month... I am lost for words! 

After my name was announced and I walked across the front I looked over at my parents to see their faces, mum was crying and well I’ll never forget how proud my dad looked. In that moment I had to look away otherwise I would have started crying too. I shook hands with the Mayor and Chelsea Higgins and then made my way to make a speech which I had not prepared for. I said a few words and made my way back to my seat to watch the other recipients receive their awards. The birds were singing and the day was simply to beautiful and magical to forget! I am so Blessed & Honoured to receive this incredible award. I am definitely one Proud Australian!

~ Great things come in small packages ~

As I lay here on my bed watching my fish swim around in their tank, I can’t help but think how fish are so underrated as pets. I love fish, as a little kid I remember us having some pet goldfish but they were rather boring back then as a child. Last year I grew a real attachment to fish, I’m not sure why it started later on in my teens as I never really cared much for them years ago. My love for fish really became noticeable to the point one of my close friends took me fishing, we waited for hours until we finally caught a fish. I was jumping around and beaming with joy like a kid on Christmas morning as I watched my friend pull this big catfish in. When it came up out of the water we sprang into action, I took a hold of the fish and kissed his pretty little head while my friend took a picture before placing him back into the water and watch him swim away. Suddenly the hours of boredom spent waiting for this fish became totally worth every minute. On the very last day of 2018 I was finally prepared to get some much-wanted pet fish, we went to the pet shop and I absolutely fell in love with this small but chunky orange and white fish. I brought him and two of his little friends to accompany him in his new home. I do hope they like pink as I do because in their tank is pink rocks and a pretty pink fairy-tale castle. They spend their days swimming around, bumping into each other, looking for things to eat but my favourite is watching them swim around investigating everything like, “Ohh what’s in here, what does this do, what does this feel like, does this move!?”. Another precious thing to see is when I take the lid off to feed them as they know food is about to come. They swim faster around in circles then up to the top of the tank to nibble on my fingers and swim back to the bottom and around in circles again as if they’re doing a “happy dance”. I hear so many people say, “but it’s just a fish”. Yes, it is a fish but not “just a fish”, they have so much personality, such presents, so very inquisitive, very unique from each other and they really are quite intelligent. Fish really do make great pets and well they can keep you entertained for hours.