My name is Kloe, I’m 28 years old from Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
I have always been passionate about writing and music but have had quite a bumpy road in life that somewhat got in the way of me chasing my dreams (sounds cliché I know!) I’ve been judged left, right and centre and told I would never amount to anything, and it would be an understatement to say I was a bit of a handful growing up! From being kicked out of school to being in trouble with the law, to binge drinking and drug taking, you name it i’ve done it!
I was in an abusive relationship at the age of 19 and ended up having a baby with him when I was 21 (almost 22). Inevitably, following the birth of my amazing son, Manny who is now 6 years old, I became very unwell. I developed a fairly uncommon mental illness called Post-Partum Psychosis. 1 in 4 women will get Post-Natal Depression however, 1 in 1000 will get Post-Partum-Phsyhosis. I’ll talk about it in more detail in my blog. I went to a unit with my son to get better, I was there for 2.5 months. It is safe to say the whole ordeal changed my life… but for the better.
Since then I’ve gone from strength to strength. Don’t get me wrong it hasn’t been easy but I’ve finally found myself and I’m not living life for each day but I’m planning for the future – for me and my son.
Being a single mum I was unable to really go to work until my son started school. I got my first job in 6 years in a dreaded call centre. They were really the only jobs I had ever done. It felt good going back to work but a few months in and I felt drained and depressed. I knew there was more to life than this and I knew I could do more, but how?
One night I was having a catch up and a few drinks with a good friend and we were talking about hopes and aspirations for the future. He said to me: “Come on Klo, there must be something you would really love to do?!” I didn’t bother to say the things I would love to do but instead the things I thought could be achievable and that I wouldn’t mind doing. I said: “Hmm a PA?” He said: “Nahhh you hate being bossed around!” So I said: “I’d love to be a journalist, but its too late for me now” My great friend said: “YES! That’s it! That’s you all over Klo!” With a few words of encouragement, he motivated me to go for it. I applied for an NCTJ Journalism course at Harlow College and I”m now two months away from becoming fully qualified as well as working as an intern at my local newspaper.
So here I am following my dreams as a journalist.. my dream job would be in music journalism, interviewing big stars. I love hip-hop and grime, and always have since the age of about 10, so to report on that on a daily basis would be SICK!
Anyways, hope I haven’t bored you too much and hope you enjoy my blog. Please leave a comment 🙂
