- [Jay] Hi, I'm Jay. I'm 16 and I don't know about you, but between COVID, exams, and everything else, I've been wondering what the hell I'm going to do with my life. That's why I'm talking to some people who can tell me what comes next when you have no clue yourself. This week, I talked to Drisana Levitzke-Gray. Since she was my age, she's been advocating for the rights of people in the deaf community. She was the first deaf person in Australia to participate in a jury and the first person to deliver a TEDx talk in Auslan. Drisana loves being a part of the deaf community but I was also hoping she could tell me a thing or two about what it's like to be treated unfairly.

- To be honest, around the world, societies are largely not accessible, not only for us, but for anybody who has a different need, in terms of their access and it could be really quite large unfairness, where access isn't provided when you go into a courtroom or if you're in a hospital with a life-threatening situation and you don't have access to information in those places.

- [Jay] I asked Drisana how I should think about my future. She told me the most helpful thing is to be confident in myself and my abilities.

- It was quite ironic, because I'm now teaching English as someone who was told my English wasn't good enough. So, and I have now graduated from university. So I mean, I never thought I would do that. When I was in high school, I never thought that I would go to university. I wasn't dumb, but I was made to feel that it was, that I was not good enough, that it was not an option. I wish back at that time that I'd been more confident in my abilities to succeed at a high level. For example, in tertiary education.

- [Jay] What would you say to young people who were thinking, what the hell am I going to do with my life?

- So networking, networking, I think would be the number one thing, not only with people that you know, but people you don't know, you know, take a step outside and see someone new, step outside your comfort zone and meet people that perhaps you wouldn't normally be friends with at school or friends with at uni. Then you know, that that creates new, innovative, creative things, perhaps. A new business opportunity might come out of that. If you just stay within your own life experiences, that can be quite limiting. So step outside and find some others.