So there was always a stigma with growing up on a council estate well especially when I was at secondary school. It was frowned at and felt like I should have been ashamed to live in a council house. Views on council houses can vary from people thinking your poor and can't afford anything to the assumption that you don't even work! Near enough my whole childhood I have lived in a council house and to tell you the truth... It's just a homey.
When I used to go to school everyone used to call our estate the 'corn beef island' now many rumours have gone round of why it was called that and one was that people who lived on that estate could only afford corn beef! Now I find it incredibly funny but back then it hit a nerve. Back then I was ashamed that I wore my sisters hand me downs and that we didn't get pocket money but now I'm proud and glad we had that growing up. I'm not saying we were hard done by, far from it. We had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies so we didn't really go without. My step dad (who you know I class as my real dad) brought us 5 kids up and worked 2 jobs to help support us, some people may think that we were desperate for money by him working 2 jobs, but he enjoyed them both and well of course the money was needed. I would hate to think people look down on my family, my dad has sacrificed so much for his kids and that on its own is something I am proud of.
So apparently you get no where growing up on a council estate well let me just clear a few little things up. Not everyone who lives in council estate doesn't work, actually most people I knew on the estate had jobs. The success rate might be lower for those who live on a council estates to get good jobs but my family have proven the judgemental people wrong.
So my dad worked at a secondary school in the P.E department and now has just got a new job with working with young people. My older brother is a carpenter and although he didn't get good GCSE's he has found a job he enjoys and that he is good at. My eldest sister has graduated university and is now looking to sign up for potentially the police. My other sister works in insurance and has recently moved in with her long term boyfriend. My little brother has finished his course at catering college and is now working towards becoming a chef! Then there's my mum, who yes didn't live on the estate with us for long but has changed her life around and now works as a drug and alcohol misuse worker and recently got a promotion!
Lastly there's me, took me a while to find the right path, made a few mistakes here and there like we ALL do. Got pretty good GCSE'S and left school before I sat my A levels. There's been times where I have regretted leaving higher education, thinking that the best job I could get was cleaning the toilets in some local pub but I set my sites on something higher and something I really didn't have any confidence or knowledge about. I worked in cafe Nero for a year in a few different shops, working my way up the so called 'food chain' but still wasn't happy with that job! So I quit, I started to work in a pub and well didn't really like that at all. One day I came to visit my mum in a small town in West Sussex. We walked through town and I saw a Job advertisement in the window of Santander bank! I took one look at it and thought there's no way I would get that job because I have no A levels or a degree or anything that could possibly get me the job. My mum on the other hand told me to just got for it... So I did! Thinking that I would never get a call, I finally did!
They invited me for an interview where I sat there replying to every question with 'I don't know'. Maybe that was the wrong way to go about it but I knew that there was no way I could wing an answer with a bank manager! During our discussion of previous jobs and experience, I got asked 'are you ashamed you didn't go to university' and I took a moment to take in what he had asked and my answer was; I'm not ashamed I didn't go to university, it is a shame though as I would have loved the experience but it just wasn't the right option for me. Thinking I had screwed my interview up completely I went in search the same day for a new job as I wanted to move to my mums. Ten minutes after the interview I got a phone call offering me the job! I couldn't believe it! I cried my eyes out and asked why I had got it and his answer was that my attitude really drew them to me, they liked the fact that I didn't know much about banking but yet I still had the courage to go to the interview!
I'm not going to lie ... I did wonder whether to take the job or not. This was a 'grown up' job and something I was so nervous about. After a while of going back and forth I finally took the job. I also quit the job 8 months later FOR A BOY! Which I can not say enough times that I regret! Never again will I give up a job that made me feel like I was worth more then what I thought about myself. After a while of searching again I have now found myself another job in a different bank and I am so proud of myself! It has taught me that I am worth a second chance at a good job... And this one I will NOT quit! Especially for my latest squeeze. Having positivity around me helped me get the job, helped me pass my driving test and gives me the strength to strive for the best! If I were to of let everyone who thought growing up on a council estate was shameful get in my head I wouldn't have succeeded in everything I'm so proud to have accomplished.
I won't let anyone bring me down... So you shouldn't either.
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