So...

A little while ago I felt a prompting to apply for the army reserves, came a little from left field as I have no real desire to serve my country or join what is clearly still a boys club, but I thought why the hell not, it will give me the challenge I am looking for in my life and give me the chance to give a little something back. With all the advertising they are doing at the moment it never occurred to me that I wouldn't get in.
Sure the physical side of things was going to be a push (sprints being the difficultly, I way surpassed the requirement for sit-ups and push ups) and I was nervous about the initial testing because it's been ages since I've sat psychometric testing. Thing was I passed with flying colours, I could apply for anything I wanted with the only exceptions being the stuff you have to be male for. So far so good you would think.
Not so. After testing I get a letter saying I've been rejected on medical grounds. Would you like to know the reason - self harm, because I cut myself over a short period of time 17 years ago I was immediately discounted as a candidate. You better believe that this bothered me on several grounds so I immediately appealed.
My arguments being that it occurred briefly a very long time ago, I was never officially diagnosed with anything, I haven't had a problem with this in over 15 years and in the meantime I've been able to offer up my shoulder to those with similar problems to what I had.
This isn't enough though, my rejection letter to my appeal stated; 'The stresses of service in the Defence force are considerable and often greater than faced in normal civilian life. Experience has taught the ADF that anyone with a history of depressive illness or adjustment disorder associated with self harm, such as yours, has a high likelihood of recurrence during military service, often as early as initial training.'
So in other words my life is stress free and if I start basic training I will probably fall apart and even want to cut myself again.
Wow!
They obviously have no idea how difficult it can be to be part of a low income family, and are unfamiliar with the concept of changing your life. Other things I would like to point out at his stage are; 17 years is as long as some of their recruits have been alive (I don't even get a second chance because of that!) and I know how to iron clothes (check out some of the new recruit videos where they say they have to teach some of them how to iron because they don't know how).
As far as I was concerned the whole process had big flaws in it. Firstly they wouldn't accept my uni transcripts because, well I had to prove I finished year nine and uni transcripts didn't do that. In life a degree always trumps a lower high school graduation certificate. Good grief at my interview the interviewer looked at the jobs I was interested in and said I couldn't do PR because I would need a degree in journalism or something (I promptly handed my degree over before saying lets just concentrate on the reserves not full time at the moment).
The other big problem I have with the process is that in all the questions self harm is lumped in with suicide attempts, now I don't know what psychs they have on the pay roll but not everyone who self harms wants to die. The first nurse I spoke to said it shouldn't be a problem because it was so mild and so long ago, the second one (after the first rejection letter) said self harm is an automatic rejection and I shouldn't have been told that however a letter from my Dr saying they hadn't treated me for depression or self harm, as well as a letter outlining what/when/how I've overcome should be enough to see the decision overturned. At most they both informed me I may need to discuss the matter with an army psych. Well guess what...never happened. I got the second rejection letter with no one even contacting me. They simply decided that something I did nearly half a lifetime ago meant I was unstable and unable to cope with something I determined would be a good thing to do with my life.
In other words the 17 year old who had both mummy and daddy take him to his first session is a better candidate that I am. (Though to be perfectly clear I don't know if he did get in).
They did say I could appeal the decision if I wanted but that would require me paying a shrink to dissect my past and give me a letter saying they believe I can cope, then I have to be interviewed by the army and jump through a bunch of hoops, and even then there is no guarantee that I would be accepted because that would then rely upon how competitive I was for the position I applied for and how many other candidates they had. Good grief! This coming on the back of my initial testing that gave me the all clear to apply for army intelligence officer if I wanted to (which one of the other candidates had informed me meant testing in the top 5% or so), and with me having researched the job I applied for and knowing they needed 13 positions filled and only had 7 candidates in the current pool.
Bottom line is I could have coped, if I was as fragile as they seemed to think surely a form letter saying they understand I will 'be greatly disappointed' with their decision, would do significant damage. Still it's simply another step in life for me and I think it's their loss. There are plenty of other bricks to kick over and ways to achieve goals like challenging yourself. In the mean time my fitness is better than it has ever been and my body is so much better to look at (I'm even starting to see abdominal definition). Something will come along.

Suicide

It seems this week that there have been an abundance of youth suicides. A sentence that never should be written. I can’t name them but Ellen mentions some here.

The issue I want to talk about isn’t sexuality, it’s bullying. If I’m really honest I have to admit I’ve struggled with the idea of killing yourself because of being bullied. Partly, no probably mostly because I was teased and picked on a lot at school. Though I remember school being hell at times and I’m sure there were times it bought me to tears, it never once entered my head to kill myself.

Suicide is not a new topic of interest for me. When I was 15 I knew a girl who had tried or at least thought about it. I remember being totally appalled with the fact that this girl had come back to the hostel after a weekend at home with fresh cut marks on both her wrists and one of the adult supervisors saw them and did nothing. When I was at uni I researched the topic for a news story and received a lot of grief from my lecturer in front of my peers, deriding my concerns and idea and asking if I was going to ‘tell people how to kill themselves’.

Like I said earlier I was bullied but I took refuge in books and more often than not the fact that I was smarter than those who teased me gave me the grounds to mentally dismiss what they said. Don’t get me wrong it all left it’s mark and contributed to my period of self-harm, these issues I deal with in greater depth here.

Recently a point I heard or read somewhere finally really registered with me. Bullying is different now. I used to dismiss this but when I think about it I realise it is true. It is much harder to get away from now. In my day it pretty much didn’t leave the playground. Now mobile phones, social networking and the internet all mean that it can be with you 24/7 and it can be there for all the world to see.

It makes me so angry and it breaks my heart.

I struggle to understand how we let go of responsibility so much that an issue like this can spin out of control and reach such epic proportions.

One thing I know is that that kind of brutal behaviour would never have been tolerated in my house. If either of my parents had ever found out I’d done something like that, there would have been hell to pay in one way or another.

I’m not about to say any one thing is to blame here. Yes children can be cruel. Yes they copy behaviour modelled for them. Yes adults don’t always model respect. There is a strong acceptance of the idea that ‘it’s not my fault’ for things such as drugs, alcoholism, domestic abuse and flat out other criminal activities. Added to this the prevailing thought that greed very well may be good.

Things need to change. Irrespective of colour, creed, race, religion, eye colour, sex or sexuality, it is time we started to stand for the fact that we are all people. Different yes but that makes us no less deserving of a little basic respect.

Please hear my prayer, my plea – if you are bullied you need to know that you are not alone and you are worth something. Words may seem cheap in the midst of what can be overwhelming and all encompassing emotions but there is love and support for you. There are networks and groups (To Write Love On Her Arm, is just one). And mostly there are survivors. There is light somewhere ahead, please hang on.

And if you need to hear that from someone else :

“We're all worried, we're all in pain. That just comes with having eyes and having ears. But just remember one thing - it can't get any worse, it can only get better. High school is the bottom, being a teenager sucks, but that's the point, surviving it is the whole point... So just hang on and hang in there.” Mark Hunter (Christian Slater) Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Interesting Week

Well this has been an interesting week. I had an audition I thought went fairly well, but then the director didn’t bother to let me know what he’d decided, now you don’t necessarily expect to hear from some directors but when they assure you they will then well nothing…so needless to say I got annoyed and a little bit down. Someone once told me if I can’t handle rejection then I should not be involved in performance. He was right, and in my head I know I can do this but sometimes when junk like this happens and I know I did a better audition than the girl who was cast and I am actually the right age not 10 or so years too young, then I doubt.

When I doubt I get down and this time my hubby got in touch with some people and told them I was doubting my ability and they got in touch to kick my ass for being stupid and letting some director get to me. I have great friends, friends I know support me and will no doubt tell me if I suck, but they knew I was struggling and they took the time to check on me. Now that is friendship.

So I made some decisions, we’ve booked our holiday tickets and I’ve came up with an idea for another novel. Then there is also the fantasy story I’m working on. So lots going on even if it wasn’t all what I thought it would be.

I have great friends and a man who understands me. It’s all pretty good really.

Rejection

Rejection bites! I should know, I’m a double threat rejection magnet – I’m an actress and a writer. Let me tell you something, both these industries can be brutal.

Rejection isn’t something new in my life, so why am I choosing to write about it now? Well if you must know, I’ve been rejected on both fronts in two days. Yesterday I got a ‘thanks but no thanks’ e-mail from a literary agent (by no means my first), {this one said - As to your material I'm afraid I must pass -- I'm just not enthusiastic enough about the premise of your story to feel that I'd be the right agent for the project. Our agency represents a very full list of fiction writers and we must be highly selective in adding to it. I realize it is difficult to judge your potential from a query; nevertheless please know that I give serious attention to every letter, outline, and writing sample I receive.}

And today I found out I didn’t get a call back for a show I auditioned for. By no means do I expect a yes for every audition but I thought I did a pretty got job of it.

Anyway I’ve decided I shouldn’t check my e-mails before going to work.

So, now I’m down, bruised and trying to hold back the tears that threaten (hey I know it’s silly but I’m an emotional kinda girl), all because a couple of people didn’t see anything they could believe in, in my work. However as my man said : an audition is simply a job interview, and that is so true.

I guess I’m also pissed off because I allowed myself to hope. I gave myself permission to want and to believe, when part of my brain was saying – don’t be an idiot, when you get knocked back it will hurt more.

So I repeat, rejection bites! However life goes on and while I may be feeling the painful sting of it all now, I know I’ll get up, brush myself off, write again, audition again and hope again. I’ll hold fast to the words a director I worked with, once said to me, ‘You have the talent to do what ever you want.’ After all I know I’ll get there one day.