I'm kicking off my new "Inspiring Stories" series with a passionate and thought-provoking story by Sharon Crowley. I always tell new bloggers to follow their heart and write about what's important to them, so naturally this story really resonated with me!

Follow Your Passion

Follow your passion, what’s that all about? It’s exactly what my mentor said to me in April 2019. Before I go any further, let me introduce myself and give you a little background so my story makes sense.

Hi I’m Sharon, mum of two now. At age 34, I became pregnant and it was an exciting year I had just been made permanent in my new teaching role too. When Ellie was born she was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, it was a huge shock, even more so because I didn’t know what that meant. However to cut a long story short there, we got on with life and Ellie went to nursery and I went back to work. However when Ellie started school, I knew my teaching hours were not going to be compatible with the school runs and it was important for me to do these and liaise with the school daily on her progress. As a family we came to the conclusion that I would leave my career and become Ellie’s full time carer, as at this time I also had Billy, her younger brother.
After some time getting used to my new role, I decided I needed some independence back and started to look into the option of working from home. This introduced me to Network Marketing. For over three years I tried various companies and actually enjoyed one specific one where I loved and used the products. During this time I learnt various social media skills, made many friends, grew in confidence and started to feel like an independent woman. However in my instance I started to spend more than I earned and there were many a family row due to the time I was spending on social media. I became lost, confused and deep down miserable. I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing anymore but I wanted to do something with my life other than be ‘just a mum’.
I found a group online for other mums that were running their own businesses and they had network meetings. I went to one with a speaker that was the owner of the group and she blew me away with her advice. I booked a coaching call with her as soon as I could and I just cried. It surprised me how upset I was feeling. Upon Leona’s advice I started journalling, something I had never done before and started doing this daily. Have you ever practiced journalling?
During the next few weeks I began to ponder what Leona had asked me, ‘what was my passion, what would I get jump out of bed for each and every day?’ It soon became apparent that it was my family, my children and more specifically Ellie. Whilst we had not had any negative experiences in Ellie’s 10 years I knew many parents had and I wanted to change that. I wanted to educate people about Down Syndrome. I realised our local support group had been nonexistent for some time so I set up another one. I started to research local activities that Ellie could attend as she grew up, there were very little and this as shocking. Therefore I started to get more involved in our SEN community and got back into blogging. Since all of this has started I set up a website for people to find me and I absolutely love what I’m doing. I get excited each morning and appreciate the positive feedback that I receive. I have signed up to Luisa’s blogging course and hope that one day soon my passion will become a business with income. However, in the meantime I am happy and I am there for my family as I can do this from home. Follow your passion always.

Thank you so much to Luisa for letting me share my story  and if you would like to follow my business journey, feel free via Facebook
or follow my blog
Until Next Time
Sharon x

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Thank you very much to Sharon for sharing this amazing story! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did!