These last few years have been hard, I will not lie. Many of my friends have passed away and the sudden death of my adored nephew in 2017, age 19, almost broke what was left of my resilience to all life can throw at me. I am 46, I feel 103.
Much of my working life has been about innovation, revolution and breaking boundaries, and this has been good, tiring but good. And I have been rewarded not only with honours and a relatively stable income, but also the opportunity to meet some incredible people, travel far and really feel like I made a difference to peoples’ lives. But I would trade it all for the life of my nephew.
This recent slew of death has challenged my values, and energy levels. I find myself far more focused, perhaps more selfish and a little more determined, if possible, to use the years I have left to make life better for my family and for young people.
I have shut Rewired State and Young Rewired State, they had a great decade and did what they needed to do. I know that the legacy of both lives on in all of the young people who took part in our Festival of Code every year, and the opportunities afforded by the work Rewired State was doing with governments around the world.
My daughters and I will be working together to build up Mulqueenys, an organisation that with focus on finding new ways to practically support the challenges faced by young people, mentally and emotionally – we will take our time to get this right and make it sustainable without relying on donations, but have begun this work. Indeed we had already begun this before Ezra died, but now it is more important and personal.
It is an interesting time, a complete renewal, but I will be back – it will just take a little time to heal this broken soul.
Emma Mulqueeny 