Chapter Thirteen: The Start of Something New

October Seventeenth of Two-Thousand and Nineteen marked the official day I moved interstate, upon my arrival at Queensland Airport I had to find my way to the exit where I met up with my estranged father who I hadn't seen in years. My father and I walked back to his car where we then made way for his place where my stepmother awaited my arrival as well as my dad's safe return. Learning the ropes and finding my way around took a bit but before I knew it I was familiar with my new environment and could navigate my way around on foot considering I didn't have my licence. This truly is the start of something new, it's where I could finally start focusing on myself putting aside the drama and bullshit. I moved for no one but myself for my benefit to get away from the bullshit. Reconnecting with my father and my uncle was really good at the time before I came out as transgender male to female. On our journey back to Dad's house we made a pit stop at a petrol station, when we exited the car we were able to stretch our legs before making our way into the servo. Upon entry to the servo we scrounged out the place to find an ATM so that I could check my bank as the day I arrived in Queensland was also a payday for me. But I had to give dad petrol money for him being my Uber for the day. Once we were all done and dusted at the servo we made our way back to the car and set the destination for my dad's place. Along the way home Dad was showing me around, telling me stories and stuff he had learnt of his time in Queensland which some things he had told me on this journey back to his was actually rather interesting and enjoyed taking the time to actually indulge and listen closely. Places we had driven past or were driving up to or near dad would point them out. At last, we had arrived in the suburb my father lived in. His place was just down the road but before we headed that way we made one final pit stop into the local IGA store to pick up a few items before eventually heading back to dad's place. After we had finished at the IGA we then made way for his place, as we pulled into his driveway I noticed the place was located on the upper floor which was led by a faded green wooden based old sturdy staircase. Under the house was a little garage where my father and stepmother had been using as a storage place. As we entered the house on the upper floor I was greeted by my stepmother before being shown around the house. As you walk into the front door of Dad's house you are greeted by a medium sized lounge area as you continue walking you will be greeted by the kitchen and just in between the two rooms located at the front of the house is a tight small hallway that leads to the two bedrooms, the bathroom and the toilet. Dad had shown me around the place before eventually showing me my room where I placed my luggage. This was going to be classed as "home" for now. Due to being jet lagged and switching time zones, it took me a few weeks to properly settle in and familiarise myself with all my new surroundings, dad and Layla had a kitten named Mia who is an absolute sweetheart of an angel. She would tell you when she wanted attention and when she didn't want the attention. My father and stepmother had been a massive help in making sure that I had settled in well and that everything that needed to be done was done. Even though I had left South Australia behind, my support coordinator had chosen to stick around a lot longer than originally expected. Morally the reason behind her sticking around was to make sure I got a new support coordinator and that I was surrounded by a good support network through the NDIS. Even after I had found a good support network through the NDIS, my previous support coordinator back in South Australia stuck around as my friend on the side, her and I spoke most days while on some we didn't. A list of the few rather important things that I needed to do in my first couple of weeks of being interstate are as follows; 1. Update my address with places such as; Centrelink and NDIS. 2. Go into the Rego places to grab a Proof of Age form. 3. Request that the public trustee release extra funds into my bank account so that way I could go and hand in my completed proof of age form into the rego place along with paying for the proof of age. 4. Locate potential NDIS support coordinators along with respite to give my dad and stepmother a break. Those are just some of the things that were essentially important to get done before doing anything else whilst interstate. After doing the majority of those things my time was spent elsewhere, whether that be attending poker nights with my father and my Uncle or just hanging back at dad's place. I basically kept to myself and did my own thing whilst everyone else did their own thing. Once I was familiar with the area I went on adventures of my own alone. I was living the dream life in Queensland; Wild, young and free. On February Twenty-First of Two-Thousand-Twenty a beautiful little baby girl was born, she was mine. A couple weeks after she had been born I had received a phone call from the Department of Child Protection office in Noarlunga, South Australia stating that they had to remove my daughter from the care of her mother for reasons we won't go into detail about. Not only that but not long after my daughter had been born COVID-19 had hit. I never wanted to leave Queensland but once my own flesh and blood had been born, well that then changed my mind but I couldn't travel due to COVID-19.

I was absolutely dying to meet my little bundle of joy but COVID had fucked that up big time, Child Protection kept in contact with me over the time I was interstate and they regularly updated me with beautiful photos of my princess. My support coordinator from Dinomite Disabilities had set me up with Big Dog Support Services, these services were located in Toowoomba of Queensland which I had a worker come down from Toowoomba to pick me up from Laidley just for either Big Dog activities or respite with the company. But eventually I grew tired of these services and how I was being treated therefore I cancelled their services. Eventually I moved out of dad's place and moved into a place called Tarampa Lodge located in Tarampa before moving into one of their SIL (Supported Independent Living Accommodation). It was around this time that I came out of the closest as transgender male to female and began getting into more female stuff but my dad was never accepting of it from the get go but I didn't think too much of it at the time. After an incident with a male support worker who was not on shift with me started abusing me and him switching his story around, he was listened to more than I was therefore it resulted in me getting kicked out but Tarampa moved me to another one of their temporary SIL's. Before kicking me out of that accommodation all because I had a shower with my then girlfriend now ex-girlfriend, this was an extremely stressful time due to how it was so utterly unexpected it was so I had a time limit I had to be out by and in that short amount of time I had to find somewhere else to stay, I was on the phone to my girlfriend balling my eyes out, absolutely gut wrenched and out of ideas as to what to do accommodation wise luckily my then girlfriend came to my aid and did the ring arounds and thank fucking Jesus one of our good friends was able to take me in, heck I even scored myself a job helping them out with their children but more so I was thankful that they had come to my rescue and were kind enough to take me under their wing for a short while until I had found myself accommodation. Heck even my then girlfriend and now ex-girlfriend chose to come and stay with me also. Our friends made sure we and everyone got a good feed and were comfortable. We had kept our eyes peeled for any accommodation and finally something grabbed our attention and we took the chance because we may never get the same chance again, you only get one chance so if you see it then go for it and don't look back. I had filled in all the paperwork now all there was left to do was wait. Before we knew it I got approved for the place and was free to move in whenever I wanted to, I was so over the moon and so stoked to know that things had started to take a turn and that there was a sign of hope.