My road to independence

By Janie Hopkins

Hi, my name is Janie. You may know me from the stories I have written and starred for Endeavour Foundation. I’m a bit of a star here.

I have been working here at Endeavour Foundation since 2011. Yep, that’s 10 years, and I absolutely I love it!

This article is about my road to becoming independent.

I know that independence can mean something completely different to other people.

For me, independence means moving out of my family home and to a place I can call my own.

Becoming independent is a step-by-step process for me. Some people like to jump headfirst into a new challenge. But I like to make sure that I am ready and have the skills that I need first.

To all the people who wants to move out of their family home, go for it. I have three pieces of advice for you:

1. Surround yourself with people who support you 100%

First, I think it’s very important to have the support of the people around you. It’s vital to have support wherever we are in life, really. Count on your parents and friends for support.

A lot of loved ones are supporting me. My mum is supporting me 100%. My beautiful friends Adriane and Nat are a big support for me. And also, one of my special friends is moving out of home so we’re doing this journey at the same time and supporting each other. It means so much to us both.

2. Learn important life skills

Learning how to cook is an important step in my journey. My darling cooking partner and my Support Worker Tamara have supported me in my road to independence and we always cook up a storm in the kitchen. Learning how to sew is another skill that I learned.

For you it could be anything from learning how to handle money or catching public transport.

3. Dream big, believe in yourself, and make it happen!

We are in control of our own destiny. We just need to believe.

Read more articles like this one in One Endeavour sharing news and stories featuring people with disability.