Kaylee on Massage Therapy and Ski Slopes

Kayleey’s Journey

Chasing the right opportunities

Since finishing school I’ve been focusing on chasing opportunities that I think will suit my personality. I did try going to university after year 12, but I switched to a TAFE course when I realised the university style didn’t really suit me. 

What I did love though, was the chance to get out and meet people. I really enjoyed the experience of not being at home, and being that few hours away really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Since then I’ve decided to work and travel wherever I can.

Combining travel with work

About six months after finishing my TAFE course, I decided to go to Canada to live and work. I spent two years over there travelling around, working and living off very little.  I came back home in 2018. Once I was back I decided to work a snow season up at Mount Buller, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m actually back working at Buller again this ski season. 

As well as working the snow seasons I’ve also been a bartender, a labourer and a groundskeeper. I prefer to not stay in one job too long, I find my mind gets a little bit bored with it. Instead, I keep myself on my toes gaining new experiences and seeing what else I can do and accomplish. 

Massage therapy

When I realised uni wasn’t for me I swapped into a massage therapy course, which  tied in really well with my sports training. When I was still playing netball I was really involved in the football club, so the massage therapy was really good to have. I also did a lot of surf life saving and had a lot to do with surf aid.

I don’t work in massage therapy anymore, because I found it could be quite draining at times. I’m a pretty big empath so taking on other people’s energy through touch could be really draining. I had to learn it the hard way but eventually I figured out that it wasn’t the right avenue for me. In saying that, I’m really glad I have massage therapy as a skill for life. It’s always there as something I can use to connect with people, which is really cool and important to me. 

The next opportunity? 

Covid hit me really hard because I couldn’t just pick up and go wherever I liked. I had previously done three years of bartending at a pub in a small rural town. As much as I loved it, it was also quite difficult being the person lots of people would speak their minds to. So I decided to take a big step back from that. We renovated the pub while it was closed throughout covid, which I really, really enjoyed working on. After doing the labouring at the pub I thought maybe that’s a path I can go down. 

Over a year ago I applied to BHP to start an apprenticeship with them. I was fortunate enough to be successful in my application, as I passed the interview and the premedical. But it was put on hold because of the pandemic. I had already become so excited about this new pathway so I was devastated. 

But thankfully I have another interview with them soon, and hopefully I can move further through the application to start the BHP traineeship in mechanical fitting at Mackay. It’s been a long process but I’m really hoping this is the next adventure I take myself on. 

My piece of advice? 

Doors open for a reason, so take your chances because you never know if an opportunity will come around again. For me, experiences are the biggest value in life.