Calvin's Story 

The following is the speech of Calvin on the workshop in Shanghai.

I am Calvin who is the member of Phoenix Clubhouse. Today, I am very pleased to share my experience with all of you here.

My Past

I have father, mother, seven brothers and sisters in my family. I am the sixth child in my family. My parents are very conservative and therefore they seldom communicate with me. For this reason, I would like to tell you. I had few friends. I liked sleeping because I thought it is a very good means of escaping the reality and the unhappiness. Due to this, I became more introvert.

When I was fourteen years old, I got mental illness. It was a turning point in my life. I started receiving medical treatment. I felt so hard. It was so difficult to describe how hard I was.

Due to my mental illness, I felt tired. I felt very difficult to concentrate on studying. My study performance dropped a lot suddenly. When I studied primary one, my performance was above mean. When I studied form three, I had to repeat. At form four, due to my illness, I had to repeat. I made request to resign my study. At that moment, I suffered very much, blamed myself, and lacked confidence. However, my principal gave me nice comment on my testimonial. “Calvin is a kind, submissive, and pure student. He is very eager to learn and accept the opinions from teachers. He tries his best to improve his weaknesses.” But, I was still unable to accept myself. After I left the secondary school, I attended a daytime hospital to receive medical treatment. At that time, I was lucky that I sought my first job which was a postman. I was satisfied with this job. Yet, after a year, my illness changed fluctuating and therefore I had to go to hospital for receiving treatment. After leaving the hospital. I became a postman for three years and then a cable technician for seven years.

As the society changed, the workload became heavier and working pressure was greater. I found that I could not cope with and therefore I quitted my job unwillingly. After quitting the job, my life was compelled to. I did some exercise in the morning, and then slept at home for the rest day. For this, my family members became more and always blamed me. My relationship with them got worse. I hated such kind of life very much. I had to face it and therefore asked my doctor to attend the daytime hospital that is the present “Phoenix Clubhouse”.

My Present

Around six months ago, I joined Phoenix Clubhouse, I was responsible for gardening and selling under the Environmental Protection and Tuck Shop Unit. At that time, I was unconfident and aimless. I felt tired easily. I was afraid of the selling service. Since I feared I had not enough spirit, I was afraid to change wrongly. At that moment, the staff and members of the clubhouse gave me much support and encouragement. They guided me with patience. Their help added confidence to me to practice the sales skill and procedure. My confidence was built up gradually. Though I sometimes made mistakes, they seldom blamed me. Instead, they corrected my mistakes and guided me to learn. I indeed thank for their acceptance and patience to me.

The sales service at the tuck shop offered me many chances to interact with people. I am more willing to share my personal experience with others. Now, when new members attend our club, I would take up the responsibility of sharing my working experience with them. I hope I can encourage them by my past experience. Apart from the daytime work at the club, I also participate in the activities organized by the club. For example, I represented the club to join the competition of the Fu Hong Society Day. We got a gold and a silver prizes from the relay. It is the first time that I gained prize from the competition. I felt very satisfied and proud for this prize. The clubhouse also offered me a 5-day course of learning webpage development. I had finished the course and now I am responsible for designing the webpage for the club and updating the webpage regularly. We have clubhouse standards meeting at every Tuesday. The staff and I introduce the clubhouse standards to the new members. For me, it is a great challenge to speak about the clubhouse standards in great detail with clarity to the strangers. I am very pleased that the clubhouse members face this challenge with me. Besides, I had two times to explain the organization and pattern of the clubhouse to the staff of Queen Mary Hospital. I had not yet considered I was able to do so. But, now. I can do it. At the start of this year, I had a breakthrough that I stood in the multiple to lead the ceremony and present the thanksgiving message. I felt very glad and got much appreciation from my friends.

Now, I am more energetic and extrovert. I have more friends and would like to interact and share with others. My mother shared with Eva, “Kelvin always slept at home in the past. But, after he joined the clubhouse, he became more energetic."

My Further

I love doing the jobs at tuck shop. I can learn the sales skills and understanding the customers' needs. I have chances to interact with people and make use of the computer. Those experiences enable me to take up the transition employment as a salesman at Hospital Authority at the end of July. This helps me to adapt the full time work gradually. In the short period, I hope I can do the transition employment well, just like the other clubhouse members. I can adapt the work gradually, then I would continue working at the clubhouse. I hope I can get a job, I have interests after three years so that I can earn my life and save up the money. I also hope I can have a good marriage later.

Lastly, I thank for the Phoenix Clubhouse that offers me this chance to be here, Due to my mental illness, I seldom went abroad. At this moment, I can very glad and pleasured I can be here to not only share my experience with you, but also go around Shanghai. I hope I can have more chances to share with all of you. Thank you!