[2021-07-31] Preparing for this moment
My foray into writing a novel during the summer I turned 17 confirmed to me that fiction wasn't my genre. But without that adventure, I would not likely have chosen journalism as my field of study in university.
My hardest career transition was moving from the head of planning and evaluation to a director general of communications in Natural Resources Canada. But without that experience, I would not likely have been hired as the assistant deputy minister of communications at Health Canada.
My first blog, Café Jen, was an experiment in communicating with my employees in a new way. But without Café Jen, I would not likely have had the confidence to launch Jenesis.
So much of what we do in life is a product of some prior experience. We stumble upon a job or calling that feels like everything we did in the past prepared us for that new role.
I was reminded of this today when a friend and former colleague shared that a job she had accepted after retiring from the federal Public Service used all that she had learned and made her feel complete.
It can be daunting to leave a comfortable job or place or relationship to embark on something new. Understandably, we focus on what good things we had in the past or what is familiar about the present. While we sometimes think about the future—this post-secondary program will prepare me for a career in my preferred field—we often lose sight of the fact that what we're learning will position us for the future, especially when we encounter challenges. That's not surprising given that the future, unlike the past or the present, is only speculation.
I can think of many instances in which the value of a struggle was apparent only in retrospect. For instance, going to a small, underfunded elementary school limited the amenities we had, which was painfully apparent when we went to track meets with students from other schools. But the school's small size meant that we could learn at our own pace and, believe it or not, the extra grammar lessons I did on my own provided the grounding for my first job as a scientific editor. Similarly, growing up on a farm brought with it a lot of work, which I likely didn't appreciate at the time. But the work ethic I acquired prepared me for the long hours I would increasingly put in as I moved up in my career. More recently, writing a daily blog post about my cancer journey is difficult, particularly when I experience writer's block or question whether I'm sharing too much. But Jenesis has touched so many people and brought so much positive feedback, that I'm convinced that it is my calling.
The concept of applying what we learned in the past to succeed in the future is well illustrated in the story of Canada's women's eight rowing team, which won gold yesterday at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The team needed to row an extra race en route to their gold medal victory as they didn't qualify in their heat for automatic advancement to the final. Though they might have been disappointed in their initial result, the team welcomed the opportunity to gain further experience in the competition, rowing to a Canadian-best time in the process. They studied their strengths and weaknesses from the extra race and took that knowledge into the final, in which they led from start to finish. Their gold medal is the first for a Canadian women's eight since Barcelona 1992.
My friend has continued in her post-retirement role for eight years, describing it as the best job she ever had. Her story and my own reflections remind us that what we learned in the past and what we're struggling with today might be the basis for something wonderful in the future.
