Creating My Own Path
I have always felt lost while navigating through most of my life.
For me, it first became really apparent that I was lost after I dropped out of university after first year at MAC (McMaster). I didn’t have any plans or ideas of what I was going to do. All I knew was that I tried university, and it wasn’t for me.
Over the next few years, I tried many different things. I worked at a summer camp, worked at a cell phone store, became an administrative assistant for a financial advisor, and even became a personal trainer. But still, I did not connect with any of those things.
I started finding my way a little bit in 2015 when I took my first ever solo trip. I was working for the Blue Jays and I had two weeks off around the All-Star Break in July. I had done pages of research on cities I could travel to and the best way to use the Eurail ticket I was going to purchase. I was so excited to do something so new and outside my comfort zone, that I was not nervous at all. The trip lasted 10 days, and I went to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bad Sassendorf (Germany).
After that, I was hooked. I wanted to travel all the time, and had flight deals coming to my inbox multiple times a week. It became even more of a reality when I worked as a part-time Patient Administrative Associate at Sunnybrook HSC. The pay was nice and the scheduling was pretty flexible. I would work a whole month full-time, go travel for 2–3 weeks, and then rinse and repeat. In 2017, I actually managed to do a grand total of 10 trips that year and it made me extremely happy.
In mid-2018, I moved to Vancouver. I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to find a good job, let alone make friends. Even with 2+ years of administrative experience in a hospital, I did not get a single call back to any of the hospital jobs I had applied to. With no other hard skills, I was only able to get a retail job. After monthly expenses, it didn’t leave much to throw into savings. It wasn’t until September 2019 that I was finally able to take another trip — this time to Japan!
In December 2019, I quit my job. A few months later, COVID hit. I was struggling with finding work and had toyed with the idea of starting my art business a few times, but decided against it as to not burn myself out from one of my passions. I had dabbled with HTML and CSS a little bit in 2019, and decided to jump back in with more intention and see where it would take me.
November 2020 rolled around, and I was presented with two options in front of me: take a Medical Office Administration course, or jump into Web Dev at Juno and aim for the bootcamp. I had experience in medical administration and would be furthering that experience by getting formal education. But I had no interest in doing that. I also did not like that it is not a job in which you can work remotely. Where as in web development, I like working with computers, building things, and exercising my creativity. Also the option to work remote is a definite bonus (especially if I get to travel too). After giving it a lot of thought, I ended up registering for the Web Dev course which would start the week after.
Fast-forward four months, and here I am, already finished the Web Development course, the JavaScript course, and about to finish week 2 of bootcamp!
Looking back, I have taken all kinds of turns and twists in my path on the way to where I am now, and although I might still be a little lost some days, I am definitely happy with where I am and the path I’ve created for myself thus far.
