Most of my life has been lived with a constant undercurrent of fear. This would express itself as a kid as been scared of anything with any level of risk which deprived my childhood of any real adventure. I learned to feel not good enough until I became perfect, a B+ at school meant I wasn’t enough, stuffing up a kick playing footy meant I wasn’t enough.

In 2020 at the age of 17 I became severely unwell with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, my body simply shut down due to the internal and external stresses in my life, for months on and off I could barely leave the house. I had made about a 60% recovery when in 2023 after just finishing high school my parents decided to separate. In a vulnerable year of my life my world again became smaller and fear became my dominant emotion. That was until my Uncle sent me a link to the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) and I signed up for June 2024 in Grantville, Victoria.

To say it was a turning point would be a huge understatement, I stepped fully into my biggest fears, I learned from other men stories that I’m not alone. I learned what emotional intelligence and healthy masculine energy looks like, I remembered that I am inherently enough without any conditions and I decided to take responsibility my life.

Since that weekend I have embodied what I learned by constantly choosing growth when fear arises, I have grown in every area of my life astronomically and I now feel 100% capable of handling fear. I chose adventure by moving from Victoria to Queensland after going on a solo road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane, now creating a new life for myself and feeling healthy again! The biggest difference between now and 18 months ago is that I now choose to feel the fear and do it anyway, on the other side of discomfort is the greatest things in life and thanks to MKP I feel capable to handle that discomfort. I feel incredibly grateful to now be living life as a young adult with everything I’ve learned through my chapter of illness and darkness, and I hope in the future to keep using these gifts to inspire others to overcome their own fears as I continue to overcome mine.