We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ellen Dundon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ellen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

There is lots of things my parents did wrong, but lots of things they did right. One thing my parents did right was teach us to reach for the stars, never to turn down opportunities and they always support us in all areas of life. When I was 18 and didn’t want to go to college, they said “fine”. When I was 21 and wanted to move half way across the world to live for a summer, they said “fine”. When I came back at 22 and said I wanted to go back to college, they said “fine”When I finished college, graduated as a nurse but said I wanted to go back again in the future, they said “fine”. They have always taught me to take every opportunity life gives me and the impact that has had on the person I am today is profound. I am completely open minded and any opportunity that comes across my lap I said yes to. I know if I dropped it all tomorrow and said I was moving to the other side of the world they would say “you go do that do it and do it well!!” They have always taught me that I will only ever get this life and opportunities once, I will only ever get to be young one, I will only ever get to have that period of life pre children once, they have always taught me to live life to the fullest because we are only on this planet for a short time we have to make the most of it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ellen, I am 25 from Ireland I am a nurse but also do content creation as a fun little hobby! I got into posting tiktoks to spread awareness about drinking culture in Ireland and how I am currently a year sober and how that has affected me both positively and negatively. I want to inspire people that if you want to give up alcohol you can and it can be fun it doesn’t mean your a bore or not fun to be around! I decided a year ago to give up alcohol and is didn’t serve me as a person or the life I wanted for myself, I decided to make little videos giving people ideas of things they can do for fun while being sober I call this little video diary “sober Sundays” on my tiktok channel I talk about how alcohol effected my mental health and my personal relationships and so much people have reached out to say they feel the same! As a young person there can be so much pressure on us to behave or act a certain way and I was sick of saying yes when I wanted to say no! I want to create a friendly TikTok channel where people can relate to being 25 and sober.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think as a young person growing up in today’s society it’s hard to go against the current and paddle your own boat. There has been times I have felt the urge to turn to drinking again to cope with underlying issues such as anxiety and mental health. One thing I struggled with was social situations, I know people can relate you drink so these interactions are less daunting. Once I realised that no one even notices if your drinking or not and everyone else is so busy drinking to even worry about your drink, it became easier but it takes resilience especially within my generation. I feel certain events come across as “fun” only if there is drink involved and I’ve learned from being resilient and sticking to what I know is best for me, that these events are just as fun if not more fun without drink because you don’t wake up the next day with anxiety and a loss of memory from the night before!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the binge drinking culture of my generation. It’s very normalised these days even on social media to go out on a Friday and Saturday night and drink upwards of 20 drinks, I grew up thinking this was fun and normal, when I got into the healthcare sector I quickly realised this isn’t the case. I realised how damaging this culture is to our bodies and minds. I also realised that no one is forcing you to do it! You can have just as much fun doing your own thing!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellendundon/profilecard/?igsh=bnRvcnAyb3lldGNx
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ellendundon?_t=8r11GjpoR97&_r=1