Who would've thought...

...that I, socially anxious me, would be on a panel of speakers along with other health and allied health professionals for high school students on their career day???

Yeah, I certainly didn't think it possible.

But it happened today. And I wasn't aware until 30 minutes prior to going on.

I thought my morning was just going to be sitting at the psychology table to answer students' questions one-to-one or in small groups. But then, one of the other professionals meant to be on the panel failed to show up and so they decided to put up psychology instead.

And guess who the only psychologist was?

Yours truly!

Those who don't know me probably don't know that I'm not the biggest fan of public speaking. In fact, I only developed it better after coming to Australia when in my Masters I was forced to do several presentations as part of the course. Exposure to public speaking helped me overcome the fear to a certain extent. Let's just say I no longer finish a 5 minute speech in 2 minutes, I don't throw up in the morning, my legs don't shake, I don't tremble. But I'm still always slightly nervous and need some deep breathing and good preperation beforehand.

So anyway, once I was told I had to be on, I was shitting myself! I was on with an orthoptist, a dentist, a nurse, a speech pathologist and a doctor.

It went better than I expected.

I also had a few more questions asked when it was question-time about the profession.

I think though, what stood out for me the most was when later, as I was sitting at the psychology stall, a student told me that the passion for my career was apparent when I spoke about it.

And that was reward enough.

Because I know I love the path I've chosen.

I have no regrets.

I may have challenging clients, and this week in particular has been challenging in just the three days so far, but I love my job.

With a passion.

It also made me think back to when I went to this careers counsellor in Bombay after my HSC --- he told me after a few tests that I didn't seem to have a passion for anything in life.

Well, guess what?

I wasn't working as a psychologist then.

And I think I found my passion.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!