Developing Champions in life. A short and simple yet catchy phrase which shows what the Melbourne Sports Hub stands for. It does not split professional athletes from amateurs, but combines these two groups. It all depends on your own interpretation. For me, it all started at the beginning of June. I arrived in Melbourne a month earlier and finally found myself a house in Windsor. Moving from my home to another city is an intense step, and I managed to survive a month of hostel madness.
Freshly moved from the hostel to a house located at the bottom end of Albert Park, I decided to go for a run. While enjoying the scenery of an orange-red sun, making the air vibrate and slowly trying to hide itself behind the buildings in CBD, another immense building arose in front of me. A building with massive white arms carrying an enormous roof like it's the most normal thing in the world….. a sports stadium! Mildly excited like a kid on Christmas evening, I decided to walk in and have a look. Immediately I walked into the Show Court and ran into a small and tough Asian lady. After some small talk and having made the most ridiculous first-impression ever (remember, I was still in my running outfit) I continued my run, armed with an e-mail address of an employer. After some e-mailing I got a job offer as a Venue Operations Officer. Being a foreigner fresh off the boat, I got myself a job! Finally a huge step of my dream in getting a job in Australia was kicking off. My previous month in Perth was way less successful, so my decision to move to Melbourne was an 'all-or-nothing' attempt. Successful!
After a while I started getting multiple shifts a week at both the MSAC and the Lakeside Stadium, and I enjoyed every second of it. The relaxed atmosphere, the way managers interact with their staff .. it all felt right. Of course, it was not an intellectually challenging role, but at least it got me going in the industry and it was feeding my resume with experience. In the meantime, I also started getting some shifts at the MIT, so I got more and more involved in the organisation. Although I got more and more hours, I wasn't satisfied yet. The jobs weren't challenging me. But then, another opportunity arose.. An opportunity became available as a temporary Centre Management Administrator, since Megan was going on an annual leave. THIS was my opportunity! THIS was the moment where I was waiting for, and with all my guts and glory I stepped into this challenge. Never knew I would actually say this, but finally a 9-5 job with a desk and a computer. What used to be an 'allergy' (to being stuck at a desk), now became my greatest wish - an opportunity to be seen in the organisation and hopefully this would push me into something else as well. And from that another opportunity arose with the opportunity to work in the marketing department writing a Digital Marketing strategy. Hopefully, at the point of reading, you have experienced some changes already in the online communications. Take a look at the website, the Facebook and the Twitter page. It is up and running! Who knows where I will be when you are finished reading this. I could be working in your department, I could be somewhere else and I could be completely gone from the organisation (my visa only allows me to work a maximum of 6 months in one company). That is what makes my life such an adventure. It's living from week to week … never knowing what each week will bring me.
So if you read this little novel, and you think you can help me realise my dream in becoming a full-timer in the Australian sports market, feel free to contact me. I have grown even further as a professional and MSAC plays a big role in my experiences and adventures Down Under. With that, the Melbourne Sports Hub did exactly what its mission says: it truly helps in Developing a Champion in Life.