Reflections

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It has been a while since I shared an update here, though I’ve been updating fairly regularly on LinkedIn if you’re interested. I’m a few days in now to a sabbatical- a great benefit offered by my employer where you can take an extended time off when you hit years of service that are multiples of 5. It’s nice to get the option!

My family and I are travelling to Japan soon, which will be our longest trip ever and we’re excited. My best friend is coming too so it’ll be great. It’ll be our first time in Asia, though my friend has been before. A bit more packing to do, and we leave in a few days.

It makes sense to summarize a bit what has gone on since I last updated here. My dad has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and has been in treatment for that. He’s still with us, and doing well now, a year out from diagnosis, which is great. My son got diagnosed with ADHD started medication and Taekwondo which have been great for him. We went to Vancouver for the first time last year, which was a great trip, and went to Texas as well to see family. Work-wise, I got a promotion which I’d been working toward for some time, and did a few big freelance projects last year. I did some traveling and helped run a global recognition event and attended a team gathering in Hartford, both of which went really well. I rejoined the Grand Philharmonic Choir and Chamber Singers and got to sing live concerts for the first time in a few years as venues started to open back up. I started and have continued doing monthly online games nights, which have been great, and have gone to several great theatrical productions in Toronto with season tickets.

This year I’ve started going back to the gym a bit, which has been nice, and continued the games and the theatre-going, which has been awesome.

2022: Thoughts and goals

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With COVID-19 still having big effects on my life and the lives of those around me, I’m definitely looking at my plans for 2022 through that lens. I’m not feeling as though I can make travel goals or plans, which is unfortunate! I’m focusing a lot on optimizing health this year- COVID brings the importance of investing in health to the forefront.

That said, I’m also definitely focusing on creating experiences this year that help me not miss travel. I’m planning to do another race- I enjoyed the 5k I did with the family this year and I miss running overall, and want to start doing more distance in both hiking and running. I have some career goals, this year I’m focusing on moving into a director-level role with a broader scope, more learning and application of new learning in my daily work.

Throughout 2021 I’ve been writing a series of short posts on LinkedIn reflecting on successes and gratitudes, and I’ve really enjoyed that practice and will continue it. I may look to cross-post those here as well, but LinkedIn is my largest audience and the thought that those posts might be seen by thousands is a big reason why I post them there- it helps me get more comfortable with celebrating successes and reflecting with gratitude in a more visible way, which always kind of made me uncomfortable but is beneficial to not just me but those around me.

I also have some plans for around the house and with family and friends too, I’d like to get new family photos, and more regularly connect with friends, alongside fun experiences with my immediate family.

All these are captured in my journal, with measures and all that because I’m a good goal-setter. 🙂 And to reflect a bit, 2021 was a big year. I finished my Master’s, took on more at work, the kids were in and out of in-person school due to COVID closures, we managed to avoid illness mostly, ran a 5k together, I did more hiking this year, which was great, did a very careful trip to the Scandinave Spa in Collingwood which was wonderful, I turned 40, I did 40 acts of kindness to commemorate that, I did a little conference talk and a podcast, I completed my largest freelance project to date, and lots more. Here’s hoping 2022 is at least as good if not better!

2021 – Thoughts so far

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Hello all! I know it has been a while. Wanted to provide some updates and share. First of all, wanted to mention that I’ve been posting fairly regularly on LinkedIn– sharing successes and gratitudes. Check those out if you’re interested! Like most ambitious people, I am always working on how to better celebrate successes and get off the “treadmill of achievement” so to speak- this has really helped me do that a bit better.

Work

So since my last post here, I’ve had a few updates professionally and personally! First of all, my title was updated at work- I’m now officially Associate Director, Learning & Development. I’ve been working toward a director level role for some time and I’m excited to be taking more steps toward that.

Also, the Allies Acting for Change task force that I am part of was nominated for, and won, the biggest award at our organization. It has been such an honor to work with that group and to be recognized in such a way. I’ve felt really lucky this past year.

After attaining my coaching certification at the end of last year, I’ve been able to work with a group of dedicated coaches to provide an awesome coaching offering to all our leaders as part of our leadership development program. It’s a great way for more leaders to be able to access coaching, and has really gotten some great feedback from leaders. I’ve been able to expand on the offerings and keep leveling up the ways we support our leaders’ development.

I also took on a pretty big freelance project that was ongoing throughout the beginning of 2021. It was a great opportunity to work on developing resources for small business owners. The first two sets of courses are already released which is awesome, and one more set should be coming soon.

Professional Development

So I have wrapped up all the courses in my Master of Education program, and have now applied to graduate! More to come as that process continues- I’m hoping to do a sweet photoshoot in academic regalia. As part of one of my last courses, I got to make a video talking about my experiences, which was fun. I’ve learned a lot about editing video from a few little video projects this year. Still definitely a novice but it’s great to have picked up a few skills! Take a look if you’re interested.

I’ve also been taking an antiracism course and am planning to take an Organizational Design course starting next month. I’ve always got so much to learn, and it’s awesome to have lots of options available. One benefit to COVID is that lots of courses that would have required cost-prohibitive travel in the past are online now!

Personal

The kids have been in and out of in-person school this year as lockdowns and COVID management has been ongoing. Distance learning is a bit tough because it means managing everyone’s calendars and schedules, but we’ve been doing our best. Trevor has gotten his first vaccine dose, which is great! I’m still trying to get an appointment. I might try lining up somewhere next week to see if that works. Most of my friends who are eligible have gotten their first dose already.

We’ve had a bit of a nicer spring this year than last year, and the playgrounds are open which means it has been a bit nicer for getting outside. We still mask up outside if the parks are busy but it’s nice to have more outdoor playing options.

Looking forward to a bit of “quiet time” so to speak, now that I’m wrapping up grad school and I don’t have any freelance work on the go. Weekends where I don’t have to do assignments or consulting work are pretty nice!

2020: Year in Review

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This year has been unusual, but still has been quite a year for me. The COVID-19 pandemic obviously has had huge impacts worldwide, and even on me, but overall I have been tremendously lucky this year to stay safe, well, and comfortable despite such immense challenges.

Work:

I started a new role this year, as the Learning & Development Manager within US HR for Sun Life. This was back at the end of February just as the pandemic was getting very serious in North America. My new role had me shift to a primarily work-from-home situation, as my work team is located mostly near Boston and elsewhere in the US.

That was serendipitous in a few ways- as my partner also works from home primarily, we were able to sort out ways to work from home effectively alongside each other, a few weeks prior to it being a requirement for everyone, which was helpful. I was able to get the equipment and setup I needed to be comfortable and efficient.

This role is awesome and perfect for me in a lot of ways, I get the opportunity to wear many hats- do some facilitating (but not full-time facilitating, and mostly for leadership development work), consulting, coaching, DE&I work, and lots of other great things. I’ve gotten to build up a flexible, robust leadership development program, roll out innovative DE&I training and support important initiatives, and it’s been an awesome year. I even won an actual award.

Professional Development:

I’ve wrapped up four courses this year as part of my grad program, Work and Learning, Fostering Learning in Practice, Global/Local Learning, Comparative Education, and I’m now in the middle of Understanding Research. Three more courses and I’ll have finished up the program- looking forward to that next year.

So I’ve continued to work on my Masters program, but this year I also got the opportunity to pursue additional professional development in the form of a leadership coaching certification. I started my training back in May, and am just wrapping up the final phase tomorrow. I’m excited to have leveled up my coaching skills and have that to offer to my clients and to my coworkers. I’ve gotten to connect with some awesome people, some of whom I have kept in touch with after our courses have wrapped up.

I also renewed both my other certifications this year, the CTDP and the CPTD, so I’m all set on those fronts for another three years. I got to do a cool member showcase with TLDC as well- I wish I had a little more time to give to that group, they’re awesome.

I also got to do a little bit more fun video editing this year (mostly for fun work projects), so I’m learning more about how to edit video which is a fun skill.

Personal:

The kids were out of school this year for several months due to the pandemic, with some virtual schooling to support but it was definitely a challenge. We were able to set things up here in such a way that they were able to have some space to do schoolwork and play while we were still working full time.

Obviously we didn’t do any travelling this year, though we did have a masked, socially distanced trip to the zoo during the summer. We mostly spent the summer inside and in our own backyard- the playgrounds were closed for quite a while.

Despite all that, we’ve still been able to enjoy some seasonal fun here and there, apple picking and seeing fall leaves, and a drive-through holiday light show.

Because the typical rehearsal/performance season isn’t an option this year, I was able to join the Grand Philharmonic Choir again (which I hadn’t planned to do until I finished my Masters program). It has been great having a way to see friends and sing even if we can’t all exactly sing together at the same time. I have also been able to sing in a few virtual choirs this year (one still to come!)

Charitable giving:

I’ve been lucky enough this year to be able to donate more than last year (based on preliminary/back of the envelope calculations) across many organizations, particularly healthcare, arts, and community organizations. I know that so many folks have been in increasingly precarious financial positions, particularly my friends and family who rely on live performances and other work environments that have been impossible to keep open this year.

2020

All in all it has been a really good year for me. I’ve learned a lot, been through a few things, but overall, stayed safe, kept learning and growing, and was able to achieve some really good things. Looking forward to 2021!

Pandemic reflections

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Things have definitely developed fairly quickly over the past few weeks. Just a month ago (on the 17th of February) we were traveling into Toronto to go to the car show, and now doing something like using public transit to attend an event attended by tens of thousands is unthinkable.

My sons on the train to the auto show, Feb 17

Since then, things have been slowly shifting, we went from fairly typical activities (going out for groceries and haircuts, going to the dentist, seeing friends every week, going to the gym, to none of that. I had planned to travel to Boston to visit my work team and attend some meetings, and that was cancelled as travel restrictions ramped up.

For me, the shifts were doubly interesting because I went from a job where I was going into the office every day, to one where I was working from home every day- before we had additional work from home directives. So I was ahead of the curve in that regard- we have already set up multiple workstations at home (my husband also works from home nearly 100% of the time).

Our “satellite office” separate from our main office space where we can pop to take calls and run meetings

It felt like things started to go away slowly, then quite quickly- I made a comment to my work team that the schools were still open after our March Break and then about an hour later we got an announcement that they were closed until April 6. I had already planned to take March Break off, so was able to spend that time with the kids, staycation-style.

Since I switched to working from home back on February 23, the transition doesn’t feel quite so dramatic, but the overall feeling of urgency and stress is not lost on me. We’re also going to have the kids home with us as we work through the next few weeks at least, so we’ll have some adjustments to make as we manage that.

Thankfully my workplace and others understand the situation everyone is in so there’s a bit more flexibility around having a kid show up on your conference call (that had happened for me a couple of times already and thankfully everyone was cool).

Overall I’m feeling grateful that I already had put in place what was needed to effectively work from home, I’m grateful my kids are old enough to manage themselves for short periods so I can focus on some things (though I still do have to intervene to get focus time here and there). I’m grateful we have service through Good Food and PCexpress to get groceries we need with minimal need for interaction. I’m grateful our house has space for us to spread out a bit and get out of each other’s ways.

There’s a lot to be nervous about but I’m feeling very grateful overall. As an introvert I’m able to get plenty of social interaction without a lot of effort using technology, which is great. I got to do a cool video chat with my regular tv-watching group this week, did a dress-up fancy party on Facebook (with everyone dressed up fancy in their own homes of course) and have more fun things planned. I’ve been able to donate to some of the fundraising efforts providing relief to those much more affected than me, and help out a few folks as well.

Dressed up to attend a fancy party from my own home

Back to work this week- we’ll see what the next week brings but I know I’m so lucky.