On Thursday I received an email from the last Disability Employment Network (DEN) provider that I interviewed with, telling me that in order to be eligible, I needed to have worked in the last 10 years, then advising me to join a volunteer organisation to gain work experience.

So let me detail the saga thus far:

1. went to Centrelink for a Job Capacity Assessment (JCA), but was instead given a waiver to sign and bring back at a later date
2. returned to Centrelink with the signed waiver and was then asked a series of questions to trigger the JCA
3. went to the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service (CRS) where I then underwent the JCA
4. was then referred by CRS to a DEN provider and given an appointment
5. went to the DEN provider for an initial interview
6. the DEN provider then referred me to a second, “more suitable” DEN provider
7. went to the second DEN provider for an initial interview
8. received an email from the second DEN provider declining to accept me but instead giving me contact details for a volunteer organisation.

By my estimation, I could have skipped about half of those steps easily and still arrived at where I am currently.

In any case, like I’ve always said, sometimes you need to create your own opportunities in life, because nine times out of ten, no one else will do it for you.

But what’s heartening to know is how encouraging the system is for those who no longer wish to simply live off public funds. Quick, easy, and effective!

Oh man…

I decided to go down to the local street party tonight. It seemed like a good idea at the time — I’d get to catch up with my neighbours, have a few laughs, maybe have a drink or two as well.

But then the bugs came.

Flying ants — hundreds, if not thousands of them — in my hair, in my shirt, in my mouth, in my underwear… When I got home, I immediately stripped-off, and while some were still crawling on me, others were mere body parts: a wing here, a leg there, all lying on me like the scatterings of a flying ant battlefield.

I cannot overemphasise just how thick the air was with bugs. They were, quite literally, everywhere, and they seemed to work their way into every place on your body that you didn’t want them to be.

In terms of horrible bug-related experiences in my life, this has to rank with the best of them.

(In unrelated news, this morning I went to have my initial interview at the disability employment service that I’d previously been referred to by the last agency. It all went fairly well, but I should know more in the new year. Of note was that the interview took place in a large, empty, cavernous room whose acoustics seemed designed to maximise the amount of echoey reverberation so that audibility was at a bare minimum.)

Last Thursday I went to an employment agency that specialises in disability (through the government’s Disability Employment Network), all in the hopes of getting some paid employment happening while I complete my studies. I was told that, should this agency decide not to take my case, they will then refer me to another (more suitable) agency.

Today they offered to refer me elsewhere.

Some people would be disheartened by this turn of events, but I’m far too positive a person to let this affect me. I feel that my life is very much moving forward at the moment, and this is merely further progression in the right direction.

And if it comes down to it, I’ll make my own opportunities. You don’t achieve goals in life by allowing yourself to be a victim of fate.