The Best Headspace of My Life

On 1 July 2026, I emailed Greg.

I had been meaning to thank him for some time.

The psychology sessions after Bulleen had given me somewhere to process what had happened and helped me regain confidence.

I told him I was proud to be the CEO of a basketball association in Perth.

Then I wrote that after a month in the chair I had greater clarity, resilience and focus than at any other point in my adult life.

I was in the best headspace I had ever been in.

Greg replied later that month.

He congratulated me and described the CEO appointment as a great return.

He said the clarity and confidence were obvious in my message.

That exchange is one of the most important pieces of this story because it prevents the ending from rewriting the middle.

It would be easy to assume, knowing I was terminated in August, that the Perry Lakes experience must have been psychologically damaging from the beginning.

It wasn't.

I was energised.

I was engaged.

I enjoyed the challenge.

I felt professionally restored.

At the same time, I was concerned about governance, staff relationships and whether the Board would support the changes the role required.

Both things were true.

I could be thriving personally and still identify organisational problems.

In fact, I believed the reason I was identifying them so clearly was because I was functioning well.