Shaun Tan said once to do the job you dreamed of when you were 12. At 12, I wanted to be a polymath. I was the kind of kid who read books voraciously, spent hours deep in conversation with friends, and got in trouble at school for being curious and talking with other kids when I was meant to be silent.It's hard to put into words what I do for work - when I try to explain it to acquaintances, it's near-impossible to distil. I'm not particularly skilled at superficialities. When pressed at border security, I say "I work as a consultant in mental health" because if I were to say "I'm a professional mad person and over-sharer who enjoys fostering critical cultural conversations about madness and other culturally devalued experiences", they may just say "I'm sorry, what?" or worse, take me into custody (as happened to a colleague of mine who was coming into Australia to be keynote at a fancy mental health conference).I was also the kind of kid who won lots of awards - I have been repeatedly deemed "intelligent" by the powers that be - I was in the Australian Chemistry Olympiad training squad (nerd Olympics), won a prize for my honors thesis in Linguistics, and for History and Philosophy of Law, duxed my posh school ... I could go on. But no one (not even me) realised I was working hard to cover up emotional pain, believing if I won enough awards, maybe I'd be OK.So I won't write a workaholic, achieve-aholic, kyriarchal bio here. Many of the most delightful, savvy folks I know have ended up with their education or employment derailed, in psych hospitals or prisons, or using drugs or work or sex or people-pleasing to self-medicate pain.Some of the things that light me up include potent ideas, creativity, learning, new perspectives, weaving human and more-than-human life throughout my work, having enough flexibility in my day to sit in the sun and read and not be stressed that I have "too much important work to be doing".At a university level, I'm trained in linguistics (honors) and social theory (post grad diploma). I have a half-finished law degree (I got bored by legal thinking and kept critiquing the fundamental premises) and a nearly-finished PhD (social theory) and Masters in Social Work (both of which I intend to complete soon, madness willing). My heart is in Mad Studies, Intentional Peer Support, Open Dialogue, Warm Data and Alternatives to Suicide.We need cultural space to think and speak about madness, what it is to be human in a world that is often tough, as well as very tender. I love being part of holding and enlarging that space.