Imagination

When I was a child I was always using my imagination. I loved playing barbies, restaurant, store, house, and of course teacher. I would set up the entire basement as a school house. We had a large chalkboard that I loved to write on. I had my little sister sitting there at a desk surrounded by her other classmates that were stuffed animals. I would teach all day, and assign homework and projects. I would grade the homework with a red pen and little stickers. I idolized my teachers growing up and that was something that I wanted to be.


My Undergraduate Story

After reading my first story, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t realize I wanted to be a teacher sooner and believe me, I did too. I did not go to University right out of high school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I was living with my parents and working at HBC part-time. A year past since I was in high school and one of my best friends (Emma in our class) told me about the Therapeutic Assistant program at Okanagan College in Kelowna. I found it intriguing and maybe that would be something I would like. I applied and got in. Both Emma and I moved to Kelowna to start our educational journey. The further into the program I got I realized that this wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to be anyone’s assistant. The part of the program that intrigued me was the recreational therapy aspect. So after one year I moved back to Kamloops. I applied to Lethbridge College and got into their Therapeutic Recreation – Gerontology distance learning program. I’ve been working in the recreation therapy field now for four years and it still isn’t what I am looking for. I still plan on graduating from the Therapeutic Recreation – Gerontology program this spring as I only have one practicum left. I have now been going to TRU for the last couple years wanting to get into the education program. I wanted a career that wasn’t the same everyday with good hours, oh and I love working with kids. It took me a lot of trial and error in order to get here but it was all a learning curve to me. A lot of people are lucky to know exactly what they want to be from the get-go. That wasn’t me. I am not ashamed of my journey and I don’t view it as failure but as a learning experience.


Reflecting on my Life Stories

Reading back on my two life stories I can understand why I wrote them. I prefer the first story, because it represents my imagination as a child. The second story is a real life story on how I figured out what I wanted to do through trial and error. This story was also a lot more difficult to write. Unlike most of my friends and family, I really wish I knew what I wanted to do when I was younger, but I didn’t. That led me down a path of lots of schooling which lead me down several different avenues. I think it affects my parents the most. My mom just wants me to have something under my belt. I think it is more important to find something I actually want to do with my life. Both of my parents knew exactly what they like and what they wanted to do right away. My mom loves working with numbers and my dad is a people person. My sister knew when she was little she wanted to be a nurse. I was always undecided. I guess while writing this I was look retrospectively. Although, there is nothing in the past that I would change. I want to share my story on my eportfolio because I think a lot of people can relate to my indecisiveness when it comes to choosing a future career.  In today’s society, it is frowned upon if you don’t want to go to university right out of high school. I fully believe that this is a social construct. People can choose whatever path they want to make them happy. I just so happened to go down several paths to find what made me happy.