I work in all realms of entertainment. I work as a singer-songwriter an actor, and I work for many years as a commercial dancer.
I came out of the womb performing my mum would be doing the vacuum cleaning on a Saturday morning with video hits pumping and
five-year-old Sam would push the coffee table right up to the TV and
Jump up onto the coffee table and as soon as Michael Jackson came on. I'd be like Mum it's time to turn the vacuum cleaner off.
Looking back as my childhood there was happy moments
There was also some really dark moments. None of those dark moments were actually to do with realising my sexuality.
It took me a few years to really embrace it. I was really lucky in that
Through my early 20s. I started working a lot as a commercial dancer
so I started meeting more and more gay people and then I was doing shows at gay clubs sometimes and
I think the more I was around the gay community the more I started to find my place within it.
Being a part of the LGBTQ community is great in a sense that it is a community of people
who are like you, community in general is really important,
no matter what that community is. It's important as a brown person to
Have a community that has people who reflect that within it. I think as an
LGBTIQ person
It's really important to within my community have people who reflect that back to me.
Who can understand a lot of the things that you've been through and and that you live.
But I think as a community - it's also got a whole bunch of things that can put a lot of pressure on
A person. I think we can sometimes
Put people in certain boxes and separate ourselves into sub-groups within the group.
And I think we could do just inclusion and coming together a lot better.
I think I would have been
around the age of 27
When I noticed that things weren't that great. The symptoms were
retracting from what I usually love to do
Not wanting to be in social situations as much. It wasn't working to go out and party my face off anymore.
It was actually making the problem worse. I'd heard the word depression many times before but the first time it actually
resonated with me and I actually
Looked at the word properly
would have been in a counseling session with my psychologist. And
when she explained to me what depression actually was, I think that I had this realisation of
WOW, I've probably had depression for a very long time.
Major catalyst for change was I met the love of my life
So that was a great catalyst for me to actually reach out and get some proper help.
It was a huge relief once. I knew what it was I no
longer thought that I was the problem
There's lots of alternatives for me now
Just putting on a song that I like and listening to it, go and spend time with people I love.
Something like going down to the beach
Jumping into the water is really nice.
Whatever it is that you're carrying around with you. You're worth it. You are the most important person in your life.
Deciding to put yourself first and deciding to take action is
All that needs to be done to begin with. As hard as it is I'm going to
do something. I'm gonna tell somebody, I'm gonna call somebody even if it's a hotline.
Or speaking to somebody online who might be able to help, whatever you're comfortable with.
Take that step, because I promise you that step will lead to other steps and the more steps you take
the more awesome your life can actually be.