#36 My Body My Story 45 Over 45 – Dawn K

🎧  In this episode, Dawn tells her story of how after being born in England, she came to Sydney Australia when she was 14. At 16 she started off as a legal secretary. By 30 Dawn decided to do something different and moved to the marketing field. She worked in marketing for national international corporations, different hotels and resorts, a racing club, and just loved doing it as well as loved the Sydney lifestyle.

In 1996 Dawn moved up to the beautiful Central Coast to bring up her 2 children with her husband there and lived there for about 25 years now.

Dawn loves traveling. She bought a camper van just before COVID and travelled on her own, going up and down the coast, going up to Queensland and down to Melbourne, finding new places, and meeting new people.

Dawn tells her family story of how both of her parents were diagnosed with dementia and went into a nursing home. Dawn spent lots of time with them and did as much as she could with them. Their stories are lost, and it's just heartbreaking that they don’t even remember their own brother and sister. This led Dawn to her new direction, she is also passionate about - recording people's life stories on video. For that, she has even booked videography courses - editing and production.

Her favourite quote is by Oprah - Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (auto-generated): 

 

Hi, Dawn, welcome to our studio and welcome to the project my body my story. And while you are sitting in the makeup chair and Chitra is doing makeup for you, I'll be asking you a few questions. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Okay, well, I probably have three parts to my life. I was born in England. And we left England when I was 14 had an amazing childhood there came to Sydney in Australia and basically studied, worked, travelled, partied and got married and divorced. And I did that for 24 years. And then 20 in 96 moved up to the Central Coast beautiful central coast of New South Wales and lived in VOCA, um, I had an 18 months old and my husband and I had then had another son and basically we had the beautiful seaside village you know, sort of upbringing the kids had an amazing upbringing and brought the kids up so I basically lived there for about 25 years now. And in terms of my work, I started off as a legal secretary when I was 16. And then I wanted to do something different when I was 30. So I wanted to do marketing, but nobody would take me on as a marketing person after working in legal so I worked with KPMG peat my work for about five years studied and learnt I got my it was an Advanced Certificate then in those days and and worked in marketing for national international corporations and and just loved it love the career lifestyle, Sydney lifestyle. But of course, when you have kids, everything changes. And so my I basically worked for myself in marketing, I had a retail outlet, I worked in hospitality a lot for different marketing manager for a number of different hotels and resorts and racing club and, and just love doing that. But I've been a bit left behind with the social media side. So I've decided not to continue with marketing, and I'm looking at new avenues. So looking for new challenges, and I'll talk about that a bit later. But one of the things I actually love doing is I bought a camper van just before COVID And I love travelling on I like travelling on my own, like going up and down the coast, going up to Queensland down to Melbourne, finding new places and meeting people.

Oh, god, you're not afraid to?

No, not at all I am a calculated risk taker. It's, I look at I really look out for myself. I'm always aware of what's happening. I actually didn't get my driver's license until I was 35. So I had caught public transport, basically my whole younger life. So I'm very aware of what's around me so. Yeah.

Okay, and what are you most passionate about?

I was very close to my mum and dad. They'd actually moved up to the Central Coast a couple of years before I moved up there. And they had a lot to do with my kids and in their early 80s They were both diagnosed with dementia and went into a nursing home. I spent lots and lots of time with them and sort of took them out and did as much as I could with them. And, but their stories are lost, you know, sort of they it's just heartbreaking that you know, they didn't even remember their own brother and sister and and so what I'm passionate about now and my new challenge and my new direction is recording people's life stories on video.

Oh, wow, that's interesting. So how do you do it? It's like a project you have or?

Yeah, well, I'm actually I had actually booked video all gruffy courses editing and production, but they were all can during lockdown. So it's been delayed slightly. But I'm so I'm training myself in that. So I've, I've basically got all the background stuff done. So I will go and interview pics, I'll send them a questionnaire that was basically what stories that they have what they'd like to talk about. And then I'll basically do an interview and interesting to you. And then there'll be able to also send messages to, you know, to video messages to their loved ones. So it's a nice after having done to lots of my mom and dad passed in the last three months, both of them passed and doing to lots of eulogies, makes you realise how important all of that is.

And if someone wants to learn more about the project, do you have any website or how they can find it?

Now? I'm not that advanced yet. So yeah, with Mum and Dad passing. It was sort of a things few things got put on hold. But I'm feeling really good now and ready to take up the challenge. So yeah,

Okay. And talking about challenges. Everyone knows that, with age we change. What is the biggest challenge you're experiencing now?

Probably Medical is the first one because when I turned 60, I basically got glandular fever the next month. And so I find tiredness, I've always been very busy and active. And I found the tiredness, a very hard thing to deal with. And that's not really aged. But and the other challenge was getting a little bit left behind career wise, in taking sort of like with the marketing and the social media, and not having sort of being active in maintaining social media. It's been very hard to actually sort of like continue with a marketing role. So, but I'm looking forward to new looking ahead.

What are the positive changes with age, you notice?

Confidence, and loving yourself and backing yourself? I think, you know, there was a I read something recently about an old guy talking to his son and he said, you know, like my last words to, you know, love well laugh often and have courage. And I love that.

 

And what is your greatest accomplishment so far?

 

I'd have to say my family. I have two grown boys. And they're beautiful, kind, honest, young men. And you know, I think that's probably the best accomplishment, but, and also having the honour to be able to look after my parents know when they needed it.

If you could go back in time and meet your 30 year old self, what advice would you give her?

Trust yourself. Trust your instincts. Be courageous. Love. Well, enjoy your life.

And what advice would you give younger women who will eventually undergo this age changes?

I think there's love the women, the woman in the mirror. It's so hard with all of the social media and images and everything else that's out there. It's sort of like just loving who you are. And being true to yourself. I would say about trust your instinct, but I think that comes with age. That's something that you learn. It's but you know, as I said before, love, love well. Laugh lot.

You mentioned that the influence of social media and do you think that idea of perfect body image should come comes from social media or where do you think it comes from?

It's been around forever, hasn't it? Like it's the, you know, it was in TV, on TV and on the tabloids and you know, doctored photographic images and now social media, it's just got a quicker and faster audience with social media. But I think we if you have a great solid upbringing, like my parents always taught me that it was about being a good person and be healthy and look after yourself. But don't get tied up in the image of what you look like. It's who you are not what you look like. It makes you feel good and new. gives you confidence, but it's not who you are.

So you think it's important when your family your parents make sure that you don't fall for this external, perfect body…

Yeah, they were very ideas. Yeah, yeah, they were very real. And they they taught us to be the same.

So what does it mean to you feeling good and looking good. What comes first?

Feeling good is when I meditate. Every morning, I go to the beach, and I see the sunrise. So I get up at five o'clock every morning and go to the beach. I read I journal. And I feel failing. Meditating is amazing. And I just I just love it. And then looking good comes from that from feeling good.

And what makes you feel the most beautiful?

Well, apart from going to a day spa and having a wardrobe and outfit and having a makeup apart for all of that. Spiritually, just meditating and just meditating on a beach with a sunrise in the warps on your face that's just makes you feel amazing.

And if you have any do you have sorry, again? And do you have any favourite qote about being a woman?

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness. Miss Oprah.

Oh, wow. I love that. Yeah, very powerful. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and sharing your story and I hope you will feel like a queen today. And you will enjoy your photoshoot. And welcome to the project. Thank you.

 

If you have an interesting story to share would love for you to participate. You can email us at info@aleksandrawalker.com or visit our website, www. aleksandrawalker.com

This is the 45 over 45 chapter of MY BODY MY STORY podcast, where we celebrate rule breakers and role models - the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show their SENSUALITY,  BEAUTY, SOUL, and TRUE ESSENCE.

For more information about the project visit:

https://www.aleksandrawalker.com/45-over-45

 

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