Being confident when the future is uncertain

6th January, 2021    |    By  Reach Out Australia    |     1k

Hey– I’m Jay, I’m 16, and I’m in my last year of high school. Thinking about my future can be stressful, but I have so many opportunities to be excited about. In the midst of exams and lockdowns, I’ve enjoyed thinking about what’s next for me in life. That’s why in this series, I’ve been talking to people who have been down this road before. In this episode I talked to Jason Ball– when he was a teenager, he had no idea what was in store for him in life, and he had no idea how people around him would feel about him when he came out.


Also check the related topics:  

Sexuality & Gender Starting in a new place Finding and starting work

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Being confident when the future is uncertain

Hi, I’m Jay. I’m 16, and I don’t know about you, but between COVID, exams, and everything else, I’ve been wondering what the hell I’m going to do with my life. That’s why I’m talking to some people who can tell me what comes next when you have no clue yourself. Today, I talked to Jason Ball, who made waves when he was the first Aussie rules footballer to come out as gay on a national stage. From not knowing how people in his life would react to not knowing what he’d do after high school, he’s been through a lot of self-doubt and done a lot of soul searching.

As a queer teen, I’ve dealt with heaps of uncertainty, which is why I was interested in his story and how he’s dealt with that. I figured out that I was gay when I was about 13 years old, and at the time, I thought that this was the worst possible thing that I could be. At my lowest point, I was trying to fight that. I didn’t want to be gay. I wanted to be normal. I wanted to be like everyone else. Luckily, I found the courage to talk to a friend, and when their reaction to my sexuality was positive, it was just a huge weight off my shoulders. I came to realize that a lot of the fears I had about how people were going to react to me weren’t realized.

Whether you’re gay, bi, trans, or non-binary, having the courage to be proud of who you are is actually a really strong trait to have, and it’s something that deserves respect. It’s something that I’ve learned to respect in feeling comfortable about who I am.

As well as not knowing how his friends and family would feel about him, Jason had another problem: he had no idea what he was going to do with his life. The thought of choosing subjects, deciding university degrees, and career paths at that point was pretty scary and daunting. In the end, I got some good advice that just said, instead of worrying too much about what you’re going to do as a career, why don’t you just choose the subjects that you’re interested in? Grab a friend and sit down and say, “Hey, I’m struggling at the moment. I’m feeling really directionless. Can you give me some advice, and can you hear me out?”

In the end, Jason’s story is really about having the courage to be who you are and to follow the things that are meaningful to you in life. That courage isn’t easy to come by, but like Jason said, having people in your life who will inspire it and support it really helps.

Video by ReachOut