Bloom Podcast - Brooke

Introducing Swarn, who 23 years old, and living in Boroondara. In 2020, Swarn finished his undergraduate degree, with honors at Monash university. Like most young people, he was hoping to take a year off after finishing, work a bit, and, with a bit of luck, do some travelling, even just interstate. 
As you can probably guess, this didn’t end up happening.
Despite the thwarted plans, Swarn, who describes himself and naturally introverted and shy, didn’t have such a difficult time with the extended periods of isolation. In fact, he realised he might have quite another problem. 
“A lot of my friends who went through break ups and things like that, they always wanted me to talk to me. And I wanted to help out, but deep in my mind I have to admit that I didn’t always feel like talking. For me, it’s the thing of, if you want to help someone, you’ve got to at first help yourself.” 
As a result, Swarn has been hoping to put into practise some social skills around boundary setting. 
One activity where Swarn has gained immense fulfilment as well as social time, is through the process of volunteering with Boroondara community outreach. “I was a bit hesitant at first, because it would be getting out of my comfort zone. At BCO I would be talking to people with mental illness and other issues like that. But when I got to know them, I realised that they were all different kinds of people, and I looked forward to seeing them. A lot of them even started to know me by name, and I thought that was so cool, it’s the first sign of friendship”.
To hear more about Swarn’s experience volunteering, be sure to take a listen to his podcast episode.

Bloom Podcast- Swarn

Meet Sophie. Sophie Lives and studies in Boroondara, and took part in the Boroondara council-led youth parliament in 2020-2021. Sophie likes to listen to the Saturday paper and describes herself as Driven, passionate, and hopeful.
Sophie’s passion for change was really ignited when she had the opportunity to debate putting a tax on single use plastic with the Victorian parliament, as part of Boroondara’s youth parliament program. 
As well as studying for the IB, and staying engaged with politics, taking part Youth parliament exposed Sophie to ideas that she now cares deeply about. Sophie says that her involvement with the program was what got her interested and motivated to work for climate action, and to encourage other people like herself to create changes for the environment. 
Her experience with youth Parliament showed her it is possible to enact change, and helped demonstrate a pathway forwards for her. 
Listen to Sophie’s story on the Bloom podcast. 

Click here to find out more about youth Parliament: https://vicyouth.ymca.org.au/learning-and-leadership/youth-parliament

Bloom Podcast - Sophie

Ruby is 22 year old, final year of studying occupational therapy. She’s played a form of sport her whole life, and a proud Geelong supporter. Ruby took advantage of Boroondara’s sports grant program, which helped her pay for a years membership with her football club.
On Ruby’s birthday in 2019, she received a shocking medical diagnoses that severely impacted her ability to play sport, and keep fit. 
“The previous few weeks I was getting a lot of different symptoms. I was picked for seniors, and I was in the locker room, I couldn’t breathe, no oxygen was going into one of my lungs, it was really emotional and confusing”.
Overcoming this was a mental hurdle, as much as it was a physical one. “Exercise has always had a pretty big impact on my mental health, it took a couple of weeks for me to really hit a low point. I had gone to Kmart and bought this big dog blanket for my bed. When I got home and opened it, I realised it was the wrong size. I just sat there and cried. You know, I was thinking “I just lost $20, everything is going wrong..”
Covid has in some ways compounded this for Ruby, although she is on the mend. 
“I made it through that, and I think being able to push myself through, there has been a big shift in my mindset, finding a way to turning into a negative into a positive.”
Tune in to the Bloom podcast series to hear more about Ruby’s journey to healing.

Boroondara Youth Hub