Hello Hive!

Where to start... My name is Sterling. I am a 30 something year old with a very colourful past. My humble beginnings take me nearly 6000 miles away to South Africa where I grew up. A life far removed from the life I live now where as a child going to school barefoot and running into wildlife along the way was an everyday occurrence.

My brother and I with a few lion cubs.

Jerry the Giraffe at the same place two decades after the photo with the cubs.

At the ripe old age of 18 I chose to start a new life in the United Kingdom which was a big step indeed. So I packed a single suitcase and with passport in hand set off on a journey which has led me down this path. Now I wont say it was easy or smooth sailing, if anything it was the complete opposite. The first few years were certainly tough and tested my resilience while I tried to find my feet. After several setbacks and personal challenges which I overcame, my luck finally started to turn after 3 years. It all started with a chance opportunity finding a job working with vulnerable adults.

I found myself yearning for more responsibility after a year or so of working with vulnerable adults, but in order for me to gain further opportunity I had to improve my education. This is where my greatest personal growth took place as I put myself through education over the next two years to get the qualifications I needed to go to university. I made the grades required after long nights of study and long days of work which paid off. In 2015 I was accepted into University where I Studied Paramedic Science and graduated in 2017.

Me as a student Paramedic back in 2015.

My studies led me to join the military where I served for four and a half years as a medic. This afforded me some great opportunities for personal development, one of which was going back to South Africa where I was able to do voluntary Ambulance work. This was an eye opening experience, having done all of my medical training in the UK. It opened my eyes to the reality that is in the west we are extremely privileged to have a functioning health service which is free to use. From that point on I felt like educating the general population on how to provide first aid and care in the community was a key in preserving the healthcare system we have.

Sat around a fire on a cold winters night.

That drove me to continue my personal development journey down the education route. Now I'm a firm believer in taking all opportunities you are offered as this paid off for me as I gained my teaching qualifications. In doing so, I have met some truly inspirational people who have mentored me and shown me that we create the opportunities we want in life. So 10 years of hard work has put me in a position where I'm creating my own opportunities to leave a positive mark in the world.

I hope that you'll stick with me on this blogging journey in the Hive community sharing my life experiences, building a business from the ground up, the places I am lucky to have travelled to as well as the hiccups which I am likely to encounter along the way. Hopefully you'll find something interesting to read, admittedly, I am not the most skilled writer but the more I write, the better I should get... Fingers crossed.

So that is a little bit about me. I would just like to extend a thank you to @livinguktaiwan and @kathrynkw for introducing me to the platform, being mentors and guiding me through the process.

Stay safe, until next time.