Every week Brazen will shine a spotlight on someone by asking them a set of questions.
Those questions are
1) What are 3 things people don’t know about you?
2) How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
3) If you had to start your adult life over again, what would you change?
4) What’s the single best thing that has ever happened to you?
5) What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
This week our Brazen spotlight is on Sarah Prather.
Sarah’s LinkedIn bio says:
Sarah is a lecturer who teaches at the College of Law in Queensland, Australia. She is passionate about educating the next generation of lawyers and equipping them with essential skills to future-proof their careers. Previously, she was an in-house lawyer for 15 years. One of her favourite jobs was working for Virgin Australia.
1) What are 3 things people don’t know about you?
1) I have Bipolar Type 1 and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. These are both quite serious mental health conditions but I am proud of how well I manage them. At the College of Law we teach our students mental health resilience and it is my favourite workshop to teach – I think it is so important we equip the next generation of lawyers with skills to manage their mental health.
2) I met my husband speed dating.
3) Covid has turned me into a passionate and over-excited veggie gardener. Having always lived in cities, we impulsively moved to the country last year and it has been wonderful for our whole family. We have turned into proper country bumpkins.
2) How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
I’ve always been pretty motivated. I’m good at setting goals and then identifying the steps I need to tick off in order to achieve those goals. Having said that, covid (and home-schooling my children) certainly has challenged me in terms of motivation.
3) If you had to start your adult life over again, what would you change?
I probably wouldn’t have become a corporate lawyer. It was never the best fit for me. I think working for a community legal centre or becoming a human rights lawyer would have suited me better. I always wanted to become a food writer – I am a passionate cook. Also, if I was starting my adult life over again, I would have become financially literate much earlier. When I was young I was so disinterested in money and things like superannuation.
4) What’s the single best thing that has ever happened to you?
Meeting my husband. Shortly after that fateful speed date we moved to Madrid, Spain for three years. On the way back to Australia we backpacked around South America and he proposed atop Huayna Picchu in Peru. We now have 2 kids (4 and 6). He is enormously supportive of me.
5) What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
I have always been afraid of sharing my mental health diagnosis publicly and in a professional context, for fear that it will be held against me, so sharing it today is part of overcoming that fear. I would like to speak about it more openly in the hope that I can help others who may be struggling with their mental health.
