Hey everyone! I must say that ever since I was able to start skiing every week this winter has gone surprisingly fast for me, which is a very good thing!!! I'm actually shocked at myself because I was sad to see winter passing into spring... We've had such an amazing ski season and I can't wait for next season! With that said there is a whole lot more to be done this summer and I look forward to being a part of it!
Working with FIRE has been such a blessing! I've learned so many new skills that I hope will become very useful in the future. I filled out my very first grant application, handled all the scheduling and booking for the program, and have done many public speaking events since the program started in January. I'm going to admit that I have loved being able to empower and encourage people with my story, even if I'm not a fan of public speaking… Every new experience has been both challenging and inspiring and I can't wait to see what this next part of my life has in store for me.
I'm going to start off by saying that, drumroll please… I got my very first job! As you may know, I've been exploring new ideas for jobs, and my mother suggested that I apply to work for the elections this year. I wasn't quite sure if I would get the job as I am young and don't have very much experience with that sort of thing, but I decided to take a leap of faith, and applied for the job. They gave me a call yesterday and told me that I got the job! The only bad part about this is that I have to get my social insurance number, and the office where I would get that done is not accessible… Go figure! So I'm going to have to travel out of town to get my social insurance number so I'm able to work. (I really am hoping to be able to advocate more for individuals with disabilities though, and hopefully in the future no one else will run into the same problem as I did!) Getting a job has been a personal goal of mine for quite a while, and I'm thrilled that I've been able to accomplish it! Just another thing to check off the list!
I talked about public speaking in the beginning of this post, so I thought I'd give a little bit more of the details on that! I guess the whole thing started when I was asked to speak at International Women's Day in March. They wanted me to talk about FIRE and inspire women to reach for the stars! I was honored that they thought my story was worth speaking about, but also honored that they thought I was a woman… :) Although I was terrified at first, another goal of mine is to put myself in situations where I'm pushed past my comfort zone, and since I am really not comfortable with public speaking, I thought this was a good opportunity to put this goal to the test. I thought that I would only be doing the one public speaking event, but that one public speaking event turned into three public speaking events! After my first speech, I was asked to speak at the local moms group. I was able to speak for an hour at this event, so I was able to share some of my other life experiences, such as the Paralympics and speaking at the Senate in Ottawa. I really enjoyed being able to do that and I felt very empowered afterwards. A few days after that, I was asked to come and speak to a class of RCN's at the college. I think this was the longest speaking event I have ever done, as I spoke for almost two hours! I talked about what it felt like to be disabled, what bothered me, but also what I appreciated in the way people treat me. I was actually a little shocked at how much I enjoyed public speaking and I sincerely hope I have more opportunities to share my story. I hope all of these experiences help me in my "maturing process"! ;)
That's all I'm going to talk about for this entry, but I'll post another one soon with more exciting news! Life is so good!!!
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