Emma O'Connor

I come from Australia, born in Melbourne and raised in a town called Ballarat. For the first five or six years of my life it was just mum and me and we would live in houses shared with mums friends and their kids. It was so much fun. When I was 6ish mum met a man, got married and everyone else moved out, It was the next stage in our lives, and resulted in a magnificent extended family. My school years were really quite normal with school and friends being the main objective. Welcoming my 2 brothers into the world, one when I was 7 and the other at 15 are my highlights.

My complete objective through my entire school life was to get into University, So I studied really hard and got accepted into a science degree, fabulous..... My future was set...

Hardly....

Combine moving out of home and my first taste of adult freedom, with having no idea how to set further goals (I had been fixated for so long on one single goal, that once I accomplished it I had no idea how to refocus), I completely bombed out.

To put the next ten years into a tidy little nut shell, I went traveling! I have lived in and/or seen so much of my beautiful country. Those years were pretty amazing. Four wheel driving through Kakadu National park, Snorkeling in the Ningaloo reef, hiking through the Snowy Montains, Sailing around the Kimberley Coast Line, Snow boarding... I'm getting tears in my eyes!!! 

 To give you a little 'employment mentality' I actually remember spending a long time believing deep down that I didn't really deserve a lot of money (I actually pictured a life of unemployment claims) I even thought I would never earn enough to pay off my tertiary education debt (this was a $2000 debt).

A series of events led me to my first job, and as it should in any good story it started with a boy! You see he was living the dream (what I thought of as 'the dream' anyway), constantly traveling, living in different places, and earning his own money. (it is true what they say about net worth and network!) So because he was working and because we were living in a ski resort where you can't survive without money, I went and got my first job. I still remember the elation I felt at having earned my first pay check, and you know what I was doing?   Cleaning....yep scrubbing toilets!! 

This was an epiphany for me, and took me into a state of abundance, for years I always had enough, traveling, working, meeting new people, generally having a really good time. Work was simply a means for recreation, a way to socialize and to have a better life.

So what happened? Why am I not still happily cleaning, waitressing, bar tending retailing...? 

I guess I started to need more for myself, to feel better about myself. And it wasn't about the money, as I said I always had enough, It was my self esteem. What I needed (or so I thought) was a better job.

I went back to school and did achieve a diploma this time, and went on to trade time for money once more (better paid mind).

I loved the study, learning new skills, and how to use them, I just didn't like the JOB.

So when I stopped work to have babies  I started to search for another way, leading to my first business (which turned out to be not a perfect fit) 

Living in Scotland with my 2 'wee laddy's' and my gorgeous husband, has been our new challenge. We did what many people do and used the equity on our home to loan money to come traveling through the UK and Europe. We were always going to work here, thinking with the exchange rate between the Dollar and the Pound would help us get ahead, Earning pounds, converting to dollars. What we failed to think about and plan for was the spending of pounds from our dollars before Brendan got a job!

This has led me to once again look for a way to earn money that is flexible for my kids and can happen just about anywhere.

I now have my own business as a professional blog writer.

You are more than welcome to join me in my travels at emma,j's journey http://emmajconnor.wordpress.com

So thats my life... In a nutshell!!!