My Story —

February 2023: I didn’t have any aspirations through high school regarding what I was going to do with my life. I knew I wanted to help in some way and ended up in the Social Work program, I am not even solid on what my reasoning was for choosing this - I suppose it seemed the most interesting.

I know now that I chose the right route, this is the field that has kept calling me back regardless of wanting to be done and tired for too long.

The wanting to help came from a course in high school, likely also my understanding (while not fully understanding) that the world we live in is a disaster. I was paired with a girl who barely came to school in the beginning. By the end of the semester, she was attending more regularly and wrote me the most beautiful note as part of her exam that talked about my impact on her.

I was required to do a placement as part of my diploma and decided on group care. Something that I knew nothing about and chose only because somebody I knew worked there. & well, I never left.

Until my original company closed down that is.

I worked my way from being an overnight staff to floor to running my own homes and on to being a school coordinator by the end (but this one only solely for hours).

Throughout, I had goals of getting my Bachelor’s in Social Work and moving on to Child Welfare - I had worked with so many kids workers throughout my years that just didn’t understand “their” kids … I wanted to be that difference.

But I got comfortable and so I never left, despite it becoming harder and harder to live off of wage that is unfair for the work we have to do.

I finally started my degree in 2017, part-time while still doing all the things, including working full time in the homes and school. It was a lot. I was exhausted.

In Early 2021, eleven years into my career - the company that I had grown up in closed its doors. I was lucky in the sense that they put a good word in for me at another local home, not so lucky in the sense that there were no management positions that I could transition into.

I started from scratch, working too many hours, with limited break days in between and little to no motivation to want to even be there.

It was okay, I had made a plan to take a leap and quit full-time work to pursue the remainder of the degree I had been chipping away at. However, then a management position came up and I applied because this was the safe route.

I got turned down, luckily.

I was able to complete one semester of full-time studies before pandemic rules came into play and I was forced to quit school, despite being online, a whole province away.

The management position that I had applied for previously was open because the other candidate didn’t last too long and so I called and asked for it - it was given to me immediately.

&so began the next round of running homes - only this time I was going to differently.

August 2024: How things have transpired.

Differently indeed.

I am so proud of the changes I have made and the leader I have stepped into; knowing I always owned it, only now with a deeper connection to myself. In turn, presenting as a boss who modelled the deep self care — who openly talks about the system designed to fail while expressing that the ones in the front lines are who make the change. When we take care of ourselves, we take care of the world.

The power of the trickle affect.

Continuing to make moves that weren’t even in my repertoire, growing and leaning into self-sufficiency; no longer wanting to be reliant on systems and for it to be economically, fucking hard.

Continue to evolve my own repetoire; joining community; trusting my gut and making scary moves; essential oils; learning; Breathwork.

What catupulted me into believing that I could do different; moving out of my needs to save people (my OG why) and into a version of myself who is working towards no longer being guided on somebody else’s time.

I spent a lot of time being angry at the systems that kicked me out of school because I chose to trust my body. Never wanting to go back.

Until a once upon a dream resurfaced (I buried it, not thinking I was worthy of it) and I started taking the next steps …