The battle to be me

All I’ve ever wanted is to be able to be myself.

Not because of some ego-driven mission to become famous, or to obtain the material wealth and privilege that I missed out on growing up in a working class family in Leicester, but to show people that if I can do it, so can you.

I am unashamed to share my desire to bring people together, to make the world a better place for all.

Every time I learn something about myself, I want to share it with the world.

Reinvention

My first realisation came when I moved to Brighton at 28. I felt free. I had a fresh start, a chance to reinvent myself, and no reason to not be myself any more. Surrounded by amazing people and supportive friends, I knew that however “weird” I thought I was, there was someone “weirder” within half a mile. And that was okay. That was encouraged.

I was encouraged to give acting a go at age 30. I fell in love with it immediately.

I’d previously been both a singer-songwriter and a guitarist in bands, and I loved performing. Acting seemed like the next natural step.

At the same time, I was going through a period of self-discovery through a combination of counselling and working in mental health. I started to understand myself and others in a way that I would never before have thought possible.

Next, I attended Jill Edwards’ Stand Up Comedy course, where I started to understand comedy structures. I’ve always said that I don’t think I’m suited to five or ten-minute sets, but I took what I learned and I applied it to my own one-hour shows.

Wrestling with dreams

In 2018 I ticked another item off the bucket list when I got involved with British wrestling by training at EWW in Hastings. I now regularly work as a commentator for Fight Factory Wrestling in Lincoln.

Because of my struggle to learn lines, I specialised in immersive, interactive and improvised performances, and I worked professionally as an actor from 2011 until just before Covid hit, although I had already decided that I was going to take a break.

Back to Leicester

In 2021 I moved back to Leicester. This was also the year that I discovered that I had ADHD, and from that moment, a lot of the struggles in my life just made sense.

I like to teach what I have learned, and often do so through my business Kind & Curious. I also run my own photography business, and I work as a start-up business advisor.

I share my experiences as a neurodivergent individual through speaking at events, and also through posting on LinkedIn.

I now describe myself as a Neurodivergent Multipotentialite and an Empathetic Disrupter.

Some people may still call me a troublemaker, but my new mission is to find those people and compassionately re-educate them so that other people like me don’t have to suffer through misunderstanding and poor management.