Daniel | Stanmore Bay

“Daniel, and I’m just in Stanmore Bay. Kind of hate to say it, but I got pulled over for speeding, and the cop who pulled me over, oh he was so good.

He sort of got me to re-think what I was doing, and made me apply for some jobs that were more than just, you know, minimum wage. I was sort of just going getting more and more speeding tickets, not doing very well, and the cop was so good about it. He was such a nice guy. I had a bit of a talk about general stuff, and he was like, get a job, do something you want to do, and he was just a really nice guy who sort of just pulled me out of the downhill sort of thing I was going down.

I got my first car, got pulled over in that a few times, got a few tickets, speeding tickets, and then the recent one with the cop that talked to me about sort of getting my life back on track. I was going a bit too fast, so now I’ve got no license for 28 days, and it sort of just started off from there, and it just went down and down. I just got bigger and bigger fines, faster speeds, it was so bad. Not worth the risk, and so now I have 28 days with no license, and I’m applying for a few jobs that are sort of more towards what I want to do with a career. Then after the 28 days, it’s going for another three months, which is crap, but it’s what you’ve got to do, eh?

Dad taught me almost everything he knows through coach-building, and I’ve got a good mate of mine who’s also started coach-building, so I’ve been looking and there’s a place in Silverdale and it seems like a pretty good career. You learn all the basics of panel-beating but on trucks.

[if the cop hadn’t pulled me over I’d] probably just be working the same minimum wage, so just a day a week. Not going back to school kind of thing, it was pretty crap.

I grew up in the same place, Stanmore Bay, and like family and friends, they’re so good. So supportive. I think it’s so important. Like, you need someone there, really. You need someone, whether it’s just a stranger or family and friends.”