College Alumni

A journey through high school, turning disability into ability 

The experience of high school for a student with a disability is very different to most. Up until the end of Year 9, I was a normal, easy-going type of student. I aspired to make it professionally into the AFL. The dream of playing professionally was becoming more real over the years as I was a part of the Dandenong Stingray’s Development Squad. Reaching the end of Year 9, I was looking forward to a fun summer, which turned out to be the exact opposite. 

A few days after I had turned 15, I had noticed that my vision was blurry. About a week later I was preseason training with a friend and could hardly see the ball coming towards me. In the space of 24 hours, I was lying in a hospital bed, connected to multiple drips, and being pumped with steroids to combat the inflammation that may be causing my vision loss. Slowly my state of mind moved from shocked to depressed, as I realised the dream, I once had of playing AFL, is now gone. 

Finally, after months of testing, I was diagnosed with a “one in a million” disease, called Lebers. My vision would decrease over the years, leaving me with a huge blind spot in both eyes. It was now the start of Year 10, I was not attending school, as most my time was spent feeling depressed in my room. Weeks went past and my view on life was changing dramatically. I felt as if there was no point in living. “Why should I lose my vision at age 15?” As I hit my lowest point, I found something inside my mind to keep going. I started to attend school again and through that decision started a little thing called, resilience. 

As each day went past, new challenges came about. Thankfully, I had a lot of support through the teachers and staff at MSC. Year 10 was very tough. I had to learn in a completely different environment. Slowly I adapted and found that I have so much more to give. Heading into Year 11, I became the Year Level Captain. With this leadership role came many challenges, but as I was learning in life, challenges are what make us grow. Being blind, I can not see what is on a script when public speaking. Therefore, not being able to see scripts, I began learning how to memorise. I was able to memorise very quickly and found that I was gaining confidence each time I would speak. 

One of my proudest achievements, was becoming The Vice School Captain in my last year of schooling. Becoming a School Captain and battling many challenges throughout my high school journey, helped me gain a sense of belief in myself. I had once thought that “I have nothing to give, that I would not be able to achieve anything with this disability”. Well, I proved to myself, and others, that it did not prevent or disable me. My disability enabled me, it gave me the ability to grow and accomplish more than I ever expected in life. 

Now as an alumni, I look back at my years at MSC as a roller coaster, filled with ups and downs. Through each year I gained connections between the teachers and staff at MSC. Each connection that was made helped me become the person I am today. Whether it was through support or pushing to achieve, MSC helped me believe in myself.  I will be forever grateful for the support I recurved throughout my time at MSC. 

I now have many ambitions in life, one is to give back and inspire students who may struggle, with life’s challenges through motivational speaking.