SSSC H3011: Throughout my life, there were many reasons why I wanted to become a social care worker. Growing up as a child I had a not-so-normal childhood: Advanced Professional Practice Assignment, TUD, Ireland

Throughout my life, there were many reasons why I wanted to become a social care worker. Growing up as a child I had a not-so-normal childhood that was filled up with hospital visits, attending school on rare occasions, and hanging out with my siblings.

My mother became my sibling and my sole guardian after my father passed away a few months before I got sick. After I was diagnosed, my life became hard and sad. Being so young made me feel that my life was weird and not real as my life was no longer simple. Words were not enough to help me explain what I was going through or how I felt about the whole situation.

I felt that I was being cheated out of my younger years as it was full of hospital appointments, getting treatments for my Leukaemia, and not being allowed to go out and have fun like a normal child. I felt anger and helplessness for being repeatedly poked and prodded with hospital equipment.

After a while, I became adjusted to how my life would be. There were good and bad days with this situation over the years. On my bad days when I had to take medicines, get my blood taken, get multiple operations, and not be allowed to go outside and hang with other children as it was a risk, I could not take. Everything I said above helped to color my view of hospitals and how my life became unfair.

When there were good days, I viewed the hospital as a place that helped me to get better. There were other children that I got to play with and hang out with that were in a comparable situation that I was in. I have a lot of good memories of having fun with the doctors and nurses in the hospital as they were the only people that I saw on a daily basis and got to know them.

Looking back, I am glad and lucky to get this treatment. There were many times throughout my childhood that I did not care that I got hurt or sick as I just wanted to be able to play with other children my age, I never had the time to play as I could not risk getting hurt or sick again. Being raised by a single mother allowed me to see how hard life was for her as she had to raise three children on her own.

Life was not nice back then, I had to grow up a lot faster than most children my age as I had to deal with a difficult situation. Learning how to deal with the situation allowed me to become stronger and more independent. There were hard days that I had to go through, but I had to remind myself that I was in the right place to get better.

Every day I learned something new from the doctors and nurses and all the people in my life at the time wanted to help me. There were days when I wanted to scream and give up. I did not want to eat most days as food caused me to get sick. If I did not want to talk to anyone, I would become stubborn as I did not want anyone to talk to me and to leave me alone.