mattnnat

A few months ago our friend Sally came to visit from Australia. While she was here we had such a great time catching up and she shared her journey over the past years with me. So, here is Sally’s story.

If you met Sally today you would know her as the girl who loves living by the beach, enjoys running and loves to catch up with friends over coffee or dinner.

You’d see her smile and laugh and maybe get a little crazy.

And if you worked with her, you’d know that she is someone you can trust and strives to make a good working environment between herself and her co-workers.

But let’s back up a few years. It was the end of year 12 (12th grade) and Sally, an A student and a perfectionist  was completely burnt out. She was tired and felt she couldn’t cope with trying to be perfect anymore.

After talking to a doctor she started taking anti-depressants.

Feeling alone, she sought help from other people and had many conversations about where she was at, feeling hopeless the whole time. She came to realize she had the overwhelming burden of needing to be perfect.

She kept striving to be perfect, but continued to feel like she was failing in every way.

And that’s when she took a time out. She packed up and went to Montana to stay with a friend for a few months.

While she was there, she started from the beginning.

Who was Sally? What did she like to do? And she wrote in her journal. A lot. She went on adventures and slowly started to re-discover what she liked to do, instead of stressing over being good at everything she tried.

After her time in America, she returned home. She returned to university, finished her degree and moved. She was still struggling to like herself for who she was, but she was able to move foward with her life.

Over the last couple of years she has learned to accept herself for who she is, deal with stressful situations and even cope with her depression.

When she laughs it’s true and when she smiles she means it. She loves to have fun and has an amazing sense of humor.

What does the future hold? Hope for starters. She has been through a dark time and has come out the other end a stronger person.

One who knows her strengths and weaknesses and just embraces them.

In the future don’t be surprised if you see her speaking in front of a group of physio students, lecturing or even sharing her story.

And if she could have a different life, you’d most likely find pointe shoes in her closet and she would be telling you about her dance career in classical ballet.

I think anyone who knows her would describe her as caring and open and completely honest about her life. I would recommend being Sally’s friend to anyone!

This is just the beginning of Sally’s story and just the beginning of the rest of her life.