I’m Back!

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from social media in the past three months. I made a decision at the end of August to step away from a career in public relations. Let me back track a bit and explain what my thought process was.

At the end of my third year in my undergrad degree, in psychology, I decided I was not ready to pursue a Ph.D. This was definitely the right decision at the time, as I would not have put my whole being into what I was pursuing. So I took an extra 2 years to complete my degree and three (which turned into five) co-op terms. This was a great experience as it exposed me to three very different arena that my career could go. Firstly with the Canadian Space Agency (federal government; psychology focused), followed by Dixon Transition Society (non-profit; adminstrative and event based), and lastly with the BC Lions (private sector; event based). At the end of this, I discovered public relation and enrolled in short and sweet nine week pr certificate. I was lucky enough to intern and work before I started in pr, and immediately after I finished my certificate. This was a great direction for me to pursue at the time, as it hit a lot of the interests that I had: social media, building relationships, and events. However, after nearly a year and half in the industry it really dawned on me that pr wasn’t the right fit for me. I loved what I was doing, I worked with great people, but I didn’t feel like I was thriving.

I am discovering my values and recently realized that I really want to make an impact in my career. This notion led me to the idea of medicine. Now that is a whole lot of schooling. I know. And a completely different direction. So what I am doing is testing out the physical sciences. The last time I picked up a physical science textbook was in 2008. Needless to say, I am putting myself in a bit of an experiment. In the next year, I plan to finish intro biology and chemistry, and will then make a decision to see if this is the path I want to be on.

So there you have it. A bit of a left turn in my career trajectory, but a challenge and goal that I am excited and scared to take on. And that I feel is the biggest indicator of something you should do.

Now for the goals of this blog. I wanted to keep doing some of the things I was doing including attending events, meeting new people and developing relationships, and sharing ideas. So I created this space, when this name dawned on me. I’ve attended quite a few events in the past to the point where some people started to recognize me off of social media. Now I thought that was a bit weird. But I thought why not utilize my event attendance to help support my developing writing skills. And so That Girl in Vancouver, was born.

Here’s to a year of fruitful lessons, endeavors, and writing!