When I was five...

I cut a hole in a large box and pretended I owned my own little restaurant called, "Hot Dogs and More." You can imagine my disappointment years later when I walked into a food court and saw that A&W had stolen my idea and had a large sign that read, "A&W Hot Dogs & More."

When I nine, hair jewels were popular, and I realized I could make them on my own. I had my mum take me to the store and I loaded up on velcro and little plastic gemstones. My little hands spent the next week laboring on creating my own hair gems. Learning from my first set, and perfecting it by my last. I made creative and fun holders to present the gems on, and even spent time wasting paper to create the perfect brochure.

 I think the only person I showed was my mum.

At thirteen I decided I wanted a job, and made a formal resume for my own house cleaning service, which I handed over to my Aunt and Uncle. I got the job.

It seems that it has always been within me to own my own business. I just needed the confidence, which I finally have after all this time. I also need the motivation, which sometimes is easy to forget as you sit behind a desk for eight hours a day.

I am currently reading "let my people go surfing," a book by patagonia owner, Yvon Chouinard. Chouinard never had a plan to be a businessman. He just wanted to do what he was passionate about; surfing and climbing. His first creations were because he needed better climbing gear. And then his friends asked for him to make some for them, and then their friends, and then their friends friends. Everything that came after that was to fulfill a need in gear or clothing, that was missing or that needed to be improved, and 41years later it is a million dollar business. And it all started because Chouinard followed his heart.

There are things we are passionate about, things we are good at, and things we just settle into. Sometimes just because we are good at something, doesn't mean it will make us happy. Sometimes we start out passionate about something and say yes, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, this is it. But we get scared or life wears us down, and one day years have passed, and we've let our dream float so far away that we think it's too late, and never reach out for it again. That's when we settle.

We should all be as lucky as Chouinard to simply be doing something for ourselves and our passion, and have it bloom into something bigger. If I was lucky I would be able to find a business that would allow me to continue to see the world at the same time. I can't predict the future though, I can only hope that I will have the heart and motivation to make something great that is my own one day.

Greetings from Banff!

So after all those adventures I headed back to Banff, and got a job. The adjustment from traveller to office employee was a bit difficult after 7 weeks of freedom. Getting the job was the easy part. I arrived back in Banff on a Sunday, had an interview Monday, and was hired on Tuesday. The two weeks of sitting around until my start date were a little bit hard. I had gotten use to being in new places every few days and exploring, to sitting around in a town that every street corner was already engrained into my being, and it was hard to not find the familiarity boring.

Although I wasn't looking forward to ending my journey, just like Wendy in Neverland, it was time for me to head home. I had done the journey from Vancouver to Banff last year on a 13 hour, overnight, Greyhound bus ride, but I opted to pay double the price, and double my days getting there, on the Moose Travel Network bus, a youth backpacker tour. It started out slow and little quiet as we all got onto the bus a group of strangers, but by the end of the second day we were best friends. The tour stopped at sites I didn't know existed in between the two provinces, we saw waterfalls, beaches, I swam (for a whole 2 seconds) in freezing water, saw dinosaurs, and took a jet boat and house boat ride.

The Log Cabin in British Columbia

I was just a lot of bit jealous when I got off in Banff and the tour continued on around Alberta. I saw their photos on Facebook and wished I could have continued on with them, but all the places they visited were places that I can go to for the weekend. Also I had to go back to being a real girl.

So my in-between play and work time was spent watching the fireworks on Canada Day, July 1st, to going camping in Whiteswan park in my favorite province, British Columbia! To watch the fireworks, instead of sitting in the park like the average Joe, my friends and I took part of a mass march of about 50 or so people, up the side of a mountain in the dark. Don't worry mama, we had headlamps to help us get down.

View from the top of Tunnel Mountain

The following day we packed up the truck and headed to B.C. I spent the majority of the weekend itting around in my swimsuit because it was so hot. Whiteswan is known for it's natural hot springs, the Lussier Hot Springs, but as there were two groups of us, we had to wait for the other group to arrive, and then have dinner. By the time we headed down to the hot springs it was midnight. So we hopped in the truck bed, pointing out constellations to each other, which were easy to spot as it was the clearest sky you've ever seen, and drove down to the springs. There were a few people there already, and everyone brings tea lights down. The water was almost unbearably hot, so I spent a majority of the time with just my feet in the water. The five of us piled into the canoe for a quick float, but the canoe dipped dangerously low into the water, so afterwards we went in twos. The boys went fishing, while the girls laid out in the sun. We smelt like eggs from the sulphur in the hot springs the night before, and I was the first one to brave the waters and dip in the lake for a rinse. The other two girls followed shortly after, but our movement was limited as we tried to find and stay in warms spots.

Gone Fishing- Moose Lake

After soaking in the sun, I headed off to work the next day. Although excited to be bringing in some five dollar bills (Fun Fact: The smallest bill in Canada is $5, $1 and $2 come in coin form called 'loonies' or 'goonies'), the first few weeks of wearing a uniform and sitting in an office, have been a bit slow for me. I have to wear socks even with ballet flats, and I accidentally left my pants in the dryer a bit too long so that now the bottom hem hangs two inches too high above my ankles. 

After having orientation, I started to drink the brand Kool-Aid though. The new company I work for does have really great benefits and I get a free gym and pool pass, so I have no excuse not to be in the best shape of my life. Also during the tour I got to see that there are views like this around my new place of employment:

View from the top, no PhotoShop needed

And with a view like that, how could I not fall in love with Banff all over again?

Tofino Continued..

I'm back!!!...Again. The rest of my days I spent relaxing. I went to the beach for two days. I don't really have the words to describe it so instead I bombard this post with photos.

In between my beach days, I spent the day at Hot Springs Cove. To get out there you either have to fly or boat out. I chose both from Jamie's Whaling Station. We were provided full body red insulated suits that made us look like we were headed to a spaceship instead of off to a boat. We were supposed to take a covered boat, but as it was being fixed, we took an open boat instead. The boat ride was a lot of fun, even though it was a bit bumpy as we were on the open ocean. We had the opportunity to see dolphins, whales, and seals. 

When we arrived we were sent off to follow a wood plank path into the middle of the island. I smelt the hot springs before I actually saw them. The springs itself is a bit small and was crowded later on, but luckily I had opted to take the first boat out so we were the first in the springs.

If you take the roundtrip on the boat you get about an hour or two there, but because I was taking the plane back I got a little bit longer to wander about and explore the island a bit. I've never been on a seaplane before, but I'm glad I took the opportunity. The aerial views were spectacular. 

So after a week in Tofino, with my pockets empty, I headed out of town and back towards Alberta.