Franglo

Over the past few days, I have been following my friends online as they reflect on the past ten years and the changes life brought.

I had to go back to my LinkedIn Profile to remember what truly happened over the past decade, as I know I had experienced a lot.

At the beginning of the decade, I was continuing to find myself through solo travel. I was at a point in my life where many of my friends were getting married but I had not found that special person. When I reflect on that time in my life now; I was not open to letting anyone into my world because of horrible relationships in the past and I was afraid of getting hurt again. I rang in 2010 on a beach in Belize with a group of amazing people I had just met.

At this point in my life, I was defining my self-worth through my career advancement; I had finally made the positon of Associate Director, a position I had been working towards for the past seven years. I continued the day to day of my career and planned my next trip. A lot of change happened throughout this year, including seeing my director who was also a close friend end up on stress leave at the age of 40 because she was having heart palpitations; the job was literally killing her. Over the next year, I was moved around through multiple departments.

In November of 2010, I went to Peru for three weeks and came back a changed person; wanting to do more to help the world. I realized at this time in order to do this; I would need to go back to school to add an educational degree to the list of accomplishments I had already made at work. I started to look at and apply for business programs at various universities.

In early 2011 during one of the regular reorganizations , I was one of the victims as all of my advocates had been let go from the company or had chosen to leave. This came at a time when many companies were downsizing and the job market was though. I spent many months looking for a job in Toronto, in the midst of the search I had been accepted to do an Executive MBA through Royal Roads University in Victoria. I made the difficult decision to leave Toronto and rent out my condominium, as it was the only way to hold onto this asset. I moved to a town in Northern Alberta where my sister was living, I would have the support of my family and it was sold as the land of opportunity to me.

I was in for a bit of culture shock when I arrived, the rental market was very expensive and the job market was bleak for women. I went through so many junior level jobs when I arrived, trying to find something that would pay a decent wage so I would not have to prostitute myself to be above the poverty line. 

The first year was incredibly difficult, but as planned; I started the MBA program and continued for the next 18 months.  I managed to find a job (Hotel Sales for 14 properties in AB and BC) that allowed me to use my brain and create a network of amazing people. This job also allowed me to do good in the community through the organization like Rotary I belonged to. I was fortunate enough to have one of the hotel manager, who took me under her wing with great kindness and introduced me to many influential people. Today, I consider her a dear friend even though we are miles apart.  If there was a ray of light in this dark period it was her and getting to know my nieces as they grew up.

Through lots of blood, sweat and tears graduation happened in 2013, I now hold an MBA in Business Administration. I started the job search to leave Northern Alberta. When school finished I had a lot of extra time, so I started a second job part-time to help pay of the student debt to my parents who helped finance my dream. I was back working in retail at Pier 1 on the evenings and weekends; it was my turn the brain off job and I got to work with a great group of people.

In April of 2014, I finally landed a job back in my sector and at a level that was appropriate to my experience and education level; finally I was back to a salary of 2010 before the craziness of Northern Alberta. Even though I was told many times, they key to making more money here was to find a husband, as a feisty female, I did not see this as my path to success, I would just leave.

I took my first solo tropical vacation before I started my new job, and learnt how to surf in Puerto Vallarta. I read 4-5 books while I was there and just hit reset button before the new job. After my vacation I purchased my first new car before leaving Alberta, a Mini Cooper. My old car was not going to survive another interprovincial move.  Right before I left Alberta, I turned 40; this new chapter was shaping up to be better than the last.

In July 2014, I moved to Vancouver and the province in which I was born. I loved the lifestyle in city; I was running along the seawall, climbing mountains and paddling occasionally.  It was amazing being closer to my parents and I was able to reconnect with my extended family and a few friends. My job has me traveling a lot while being based in a home office. It was difficult to meet new people and the cost of living was killing me.  In 2014, it was already $1800/month for a one-bedroom condominium in the city. I lasted a year and half in the city and then started looking at ways to move back to Toronto into my condominium that I owned and back to all of my friends. Before I left Vancouver, there was an individual chasing me but I was not ready, he came on to strong and scared me away, I was not ready to commit, so I left.

In July of 2016, I took possession of my condominium again and started the cleansing process to get it ready for habitation again and in August, I moved back in.  One last time, I did the cross-country drive solo, back to Toronto.  This as the third and hopefully the last time, I have to do this drive across Canada, it is a very large country.

I started to settle back into my life, with my friends who are like family and into working out of an office again.  These months were exhausting because I was doing multiple roles within the company, as we looked to backfill my role out west. By December, I had a ton of vacation left and zero energy, so I decided to book at solo trip to Cuba with a suitcase full of books, sunscreen and not make-up. I was not interested in meeting anyone; this was a vacation for me to relax to get ready for the following year.

The reason for this blog happened on that vacation, I meet my now life partner. Our time in Cuba was just so natural from the day we met in the bar. In my mind this was a vacation fling, I was finally settled and had not intention of moving again. When I returned to Toronto, my best friend told me that anyone you can spend and entire week with and not want to kill , there is something there and she was right.

We continued long distance until 2019 going back and for the between Toronto and Montreal, and finally in April we made it official with a ceremony on the beach and by July, I was living in Montreal taking on him and his three french kids.

I look back on this decade with so much change having lived in four provinces, four significant job changes, going back to school twice ; realizing it was the path I need to take to be in the place where I am now.

As I look forward to this decade, I am looking forward to putting down roots, figuring out how to be a parent, mastering another language and learning to be in a loving relationship that only occasionally has me reaching for my running shoes.