Hi, I’m Hannah. I’m an Aussie millennial wife and mum and an ex-teacher on a mission to change lives through ethical entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Still figuring out the best way about it, but we’ll get there.
Guiding beliefs
I believe everything we do in this life ripples. I believe every one of us matters. And I think as we walk a path through the darkness around us, our way must be lit by the inner light of our authentic selves, with integrity and intention. We don’t always have to know where we’re going but we need to be mindful of our journey all the same.
How I lost my way
From a young age, I was driven by a painfully intense need to know what I should be doing and how to do it. Even as a kid, I thought life was a precious thing, too short to waste.
But a crisis in my teenage years shook the whole foundation of my life. I found myself alone, with no guidance or support, and fell prey to an abuser. Following that experience, my limited capacity to work and complete lack of experience quickly compounded the sense that I was a worthless, broken person.
Over several years, I pursued studies of philosophy, history and English, and decided to try teaching, since I was so passionate about learning.
I gradually built up my confidence in performing that role, and then made the mistake of entwining it with my whole concept of self-worth. ‘Teacher’ became my identity, and that kept me from developing a sense of my own capability beyond that role.
Over time, the burnout set in. I started out particularly excited to help high schoolers connect their senior studies to a greater sense of purpose and direction. But among my many frustrations with the education system was the fact that the dedicated curriculum for future planning was full of the most aggravatingly pointless compulsory material that all senior students have to complete, often repulsing them from any interest in career planning.
There were so many other ways in which I became disillusioned with the system. Even so, I persisted, feeling I wasn’t in a position to have any of the impacts I was there for, but convinced I wasn’t good for anything else.
My turning point
My hand had to be forced by fate. A particularly rough financial year and a stretch of a couple months without a contract compelled me to seek some other form of reliable income to support my family, at least temporarily. I had to consider very broadly what kind of jobs I might be able to do, and that opened the floodgates of imagining all kinds of possibilities for myself.
Suddenly, dread turned to excitement. And ultimately that’s what brought me here — the realisation I can do things the way I think they ought to be done, supported by people who appreciate the difference.
Lessons learned
It took me so long to embrace the ‘growth mindset’ I’ve been taught to teach my students.
Trauma runs deep. A couple of innocent mistakes in your early years can set you back by years: I’ve learned that the hard way, and our culture doesn’t do much to guide young people on a path to success and fulfilment. Rather, the ground they walk is riddled with pitfalls.
This is my simple mission: to reach young people the way I needed to be reached, to open up to them some of the possibilities, help them to recognise their own potential and support them to find a pathway.
I’ve wasted enough of my own time. I’m here to do what I can to help others not to fall into the traps I know too well.
I hope you find some value in this project. You can read the brief mission statement of this blog here.