Loveday Writing

FALLING DOWN AND RISING

Four years ago, I was fresh out of high school and decided to work full-time at Woolworths, where I had already been working for over a year. After working full-time for three months, this particular day at work is one I have never forgotten and I never will as it ended up changing my life.

It was May 30 2009 and it started out like every other day. I arrived, put by handbag in my locker, clocked on and went to my register (yes, I was a check-out chick) and worked hard. Although I wasn’t feeling particularly well, but for the first couple of hours I brushed it off. About three hours into my shift, I couldn’t handle it anymore and asked my supervisor if I could take a breather. I was making my way to the lunchroom when I fainted in the middle of the store. One of my other workmates, Natalie kept me company, even though she wasn’t working that day. Although I didn’t lose consciousness, I didn’t have the energy to get up and another supervisor decided to call an ambulance, so I could be checked out at the hospital.

After a few hours in hospital I was sent home and took the week off work to recover. I didn’t find out until years later that the blood pressure medication I was on at the time was slowing my heart down and that caused the fainting. During this week off, I started writing again for the first time in months and rediscovered my joy for it. It was during this week off, I decided that I did want to go to uni to study creative writing and journalism. Four years on, I am in my fourth year of a double degree and I am now a freelance writer and a businesswoman. I finally have a paid writing job, I work from home and I work for myself.

I wouldn’t be the businesswoman I am now, if that day at work at Woolworths had never happened.