This week, I had a chance to get an insight into the life journey of Natalie Lapa who moved from Langley, BC, to Spruce Grove, Alberta, and has resided there for more than a decade.

Natalie had been homeschooled from Kindergarten through Grade 12 by her mother and started her journey at Athabasca University pursuing the Bachelors of Science program with a major in human science.  But she added, “This fall I am transferring to the University of Alberta, as I was accepted into their honours program in cell biology.  After I finish my undergraduate degree, I would like to pursue graduate studies abroad.  Athabasca allowed me to start my post-secondary journey in my last year of high school.  The courses I took at AU enabled me to start in the middle of Year 2 of the cell biology program at the U of A.”

During her free time Natalie enjoys watching and critiquing films, staring at a blank wall deep in thought (she told me that there’s no guarantee that those thoughts are deep, though), and travelling.  “Currently, I’m training to race the Spartan Sprint in Red Deer.”

Throughout her life, her desire to learn was influenced by many people, real and fictional.  She mentioned affectionately, “My mom homeschooled me all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade, and essentially taught me how to learn on my own.  Fictionally, the character of Nathaniel Bowditch (who was a real person) in the historical novel Carry On, Mr. Bowditch was very inspiring.  His relentless self-driven pursuit of knowledge, despite major professional and personal setbacks, put my own learning problems into perspective.”

As for her experience with online learning, she mentioned that “Learning online through Athabasca allowed me to start taking courses while I was across the Atlantic, working as an au pair in Germany.  It proved invaluable last year, when on-campus universities had to migrate online.  I found that the pandemic didn’t affect my schooling much, because Athabasca was built to be an online university.”

Natalie’s most memorable AU course was PHYS 200.

“It was extremely difficult for me, probably because I procrastinated too much on it.  I crammed nearly all the lab reports into the last 3 days before my course contract date.  Fuzzily building graphs and writing out discussions/conclusions on data at midnight was very memorable (I’m a morning person).”

Natalie found communications with tutors to be extremely effective and helpful since their advice and support helped her pave her way through various difficult courses, “All my tutors have been great at communicating, although the methods of communication would vary from tutor to tutor.  One tutor helped me with a physics problem (in PHYS 200) by drawing out her own diagram and emailing me the picture.  Another tutor primarily used the phone.  All were helpful when I needed help.  Shout-out to Lois Browne, my organic chemistry tutor.  I wasn’t the best at organic chemistry, but she was very patient and clearly pointed out where I needed to improve.  Thanks to her, I ended up with an A- in CHEM 350.  (I was barely hoping for a C+ when I was halfway through the course.)”

Her pet peeve is people not paying attention to any written information, noting that, “I’ve seen people walk into automatic doors that refused to open… after walking around the prominent sign in their way that stated the doors were out of order.”

Currently, outside of AU books, Natalie is reading Mao Tse-Tung and I Were Beggars, by Siao-yu.

“Yu was a schoolmate of Mao, and they went on a “begging trip” through China at one point.  The book was lent to me by a friend who’s a history buff.  I’m enjoying the immersion into a culture and era about which I know practically nothing.  I’m also appreciating how Mao and Siao-yu disagree on almost everything, and yet still maintain their friendship (at least for now) through mutual respect and shared passions for debate and poetry.”

Natalie’s passion for learning as well as advancing her career by seeking new opportunities is very motivating and inspirational.  The Voice Magazine team thanks Natalie Lapa for taking time out to share her life journey and prays for her continued success in every stage and cycle of life.

Lorie Tran resides in Calgary, Alberta and is currently in Third year of the Bachelor of General Science program.  She is also a new member of AUSU’s MEC Committee position at AUSU.  About that, she said, “I hope I can contribute my support to students during this year with their student life.  I want to be their voice for anything related to education, financial situation, and other student affairs.”

An active member of Psychologists Association of Alberta and an event volunteer at many non-profit organizations in Calgary, Lorie hopes to apply for Masters of Counselling at Athabasca University by 2023.

“I knew that I wanted to be a psychologist,” she explains, “I chose only courses that meet the requirements of the provincial association.”

During her free time Lorie likes to cook different cuisines,  “When I have free time, I like to try to cook different foods.  Cooking is an art.  For me, this is a great exercise to remind me about my mental health.  I try to use my break time to cook, spend quality time eating well and avoid my phones and laptops.  When I enjoy food, it releases my stress.  Sometimes, I found it interesting to learn more about the history of new cuisine.”

Lorie’s parents had the greatest influence in her desire to learn, dream and achieve her life goals.  She mentioned affectionately, “They love me unconditionally and gave me the best life that I could ask for.  They worked so hard for my future, and they didn’t complain about their lives to me.  I wish I knew it and took responsibility for my family earlier.”

As for her friends in AU she mentioned, “I met a friend from Vernon.  She wrote a book and it’s a top book for kids on Amazon.”  You can see our recent interview with Christine Dubois for more on that.

Lorie would also like to adopt a puppy and run it to the park everyday!

As for experience with online learning, she professionally weighed the pros and cons as follows:

“Pros: I can study faster or slower, depending on my work schedule.  I can select any courses that I feel confident to check first.  I love to plan things out, which is perfect for me to work on my study plan.  There are student groups all over the world that I can connect with.  It forces me to read a lot and utilizes all of the resources available in my course.  For example, textbooks, videos, Key concepts…One thing I like is the materials of our schools; I can refer anytime I want.

“Cons: It’s not for everyone.  I think it will be hard for people who need interaction. Sometimes, I feel a lack of motivation to keep studying.  Besides, looking at a computer for long hours made my back hurt.  I need to learn how to stretch and manage my break to ensure my brain is not overloaded.  I want to mention that there is a lack of communication between school and students.

“Moreover, a guideline for each course should be more visible on the system.

“Sometimes, I feel there is no community in our school.  There are not many student clubs to join.  I hope there will be some group work in the future and people can meet and learn from each other.”

These were all points well made, if you ask me.

As far as communication with tutors is concerned, she mentioned,

“So far, I have my ENG 255 &; MATH 215 classes only.  I would say I am so lucky to have my tutors.  They are very quick at responding.  I try to interact with them to share my goals for each course.  For every assignment feedback, I reconfirm my mistakes and how I can improve.”

Lorie would like to eat Pho in her favourite restaurant Pure Kitchen in Calgary with Meg Jay; who is an author of the book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of Them Now.  She recalls:

“After I read her book, I decided to become a therapist.  I would love to tell her how she changed my life and how powerful her stories are.

“When the pandemic restrictions were in effect, I lost my job and stayed home for six months and I couldn’t think about anything.  One day, I could not stand my feelings anymore.  I started to clean up my house and tried to sell everything I could to pay my bills and debts.

“I never thought it could happen in my life.  I found a book that I bought for myself—never had a chance to finish it.  The book is called The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter-And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Dr.  Meg Jay.

“Jay was an experienced as a clinical psychologist who helped people their 30s and 40s who were hampered by a “loss of vision” in their 20s.  This book is intended to give people in their 20s some guidance on how to create that vision (in a non-corny way) so that they can better prepare for their 30s and beyond, rather than playing catch-up after derping around for eight years.  I highly recommend everyone to read this.  I believe that every struggle in our life is a good lesson for us.  Learning about the history of our family can help us to define who we are and how we want our life to be.”

Lorie wished that she didn’t work so much in her twenties and that taught her the valuable lesson of just how short life is and how quickly time flies by.

“If I could go back, I would prefer to take my time to study, think and observe my own life to make significant decisions for my career.  I would love to travel more and enjoy life.  However, I need to admit that all of the experience I had led me to continue education and commit to building a great life.”

Lories proudest moments was “when I got accepted to my current program.  I’m grateful that my program opens for me so many doors to connect great people and promising opportunities.”

She also suggested, “Students should check out the counseling department of Athabasca to do some quizzes and define which programs are good for you.  For me, learning about psychology helps me to research more about childhood experiences.  From there, I was able to know about the learning style to study well.  I tried to revaluate my work experience in the past and write down the pros and cons.  Looking at those notes helped me gain a deeper insight about myself and made me a better person.

“Recently, I learned about IKIGAI, the reason why you get up in the morning.  Japanese people believe that the sum of small joys in everyday life results in more fulfilling life as a whole.  So to know what your purpose of life is, you may want to answer these questions:

What you love.

What you care about.

What the world needs

What you can get paid for.

I hope to share later when I know how to utilize this concept with you all.”

Lorie distinguishes herself from most other people through actively volunteering which brings her happiness and inner peace, “I do a lot of volunteer work.  Helping people makes me happy and grateful to share great moments with them.  Besides, I’m an active member of the Psychologists Association of Alberta.  I am also an event volunteer at Calgary Korean Women’s Association and VietSAIT mentor and other Vietnamese community groups.

“In my free time, I help new Vietnamese comers to reach out to necessary resources.  On the other hand, I used my knowledge of Business, IT, and Psychology to coach Vietnamese youth groups to choose careers and improve academic English.”

Lorie likes to read books about “mostly psychology” and recommended reading How to deal with difficult people by Gill Hasson.

She loves watching Grey’s Anatomy since “Watching the series, I learnt a lot about empathy in the workplace.”

Lorie Tran’s efforts to achieve her goals, affection for her family, devotion for the community and lifelong achievements are well worthy of praise and a source of true inspiration that is nurtured by selfless hours of volunteer work especially for new immigrants.  I thank Lorie for sharing her journey and pray for her success in all aspects of life.

“Some say that our destiny is tied to the land, as much a part of us as we are of it.  Others say fate is woven together like a cloth, so that one’s destiny intervenes with many others.  It is the one thing that we search for, or fight to change.  Some never find it.  But there are some who are led.”

-Merida, Brave (2012)

Life is like a chess board and each of us are all like pieces on that chess board.  Every choice we make and even those that we have no control over affects us as well as those around us.  This week, I was able to get a picture of that very chessboard by speaking with Christine Dubois, a student who resides in Vernon BC with her husband and son.

Christine was born and raised on Vancouver Island and spent most of her life near the ocean.  However, she moved to Vernon BC five years ago when her husband was injured, medically discharged, and released from the Navy.

“We had to leave military housing and I was very pregnant at the time.  We had to make some tough decisions about what to do, and eventually decided to move to the Okanagan, where the housing market at the time was much lower than Victoria.  It was very difficult for us to move far away from my family in my condition.”

Christine has been a nurse for around 10 years and currently works as an LPN at the hospital in Okanagan, “I am currently taking my Bachelors of Nursing through Athabasca, while working close to full time and caring for my lovely but very energetic five-year-old.  During my degree, I will have to travel to Alberta to complete my practicums and stay for about 2 months away from my family.”

“My goal is to finish my Bachelors of Nursing then pursue my Nurse Practitioner credential after because the Okanagan is incredibly short of practitioners.  We have a lot of rural communities that are underserved, and I hope to help contribute and do my part for my community.”

When asked if it was her childhood dream to become a nurse, she replied laughingly, “I wanted to become a mermaid when I grew up, but nursing was a pretty good option too.”

When she’s not studying, Christine likes to explore her creative side by painting and playing music, “I recently learnt a little violin because I have always wanted to learn it.  I have been taking violin classes for the last 2 years and I’m on level 5 now.”

Her love for the ocean and childhood memories enticed her to bring a part for her childhood home all the way to Okanagan.  “I love Ocean art.  I have lived on the island most of my life and ocean is something I have always seen everyday, but in Okanagan there’s no ocean, so I have painted my living room Robins egg blue.  I’ve got a big painting of the ocean and I put some real sand into it.  I’ve painted a mermaid, a sea horse, an octopus, a whale, a shrimp and a lighthouse; all different paintings; in my living room.”

Christine took her creativity a step further and combined her love for mermaids with her son’s imagination about dragons into a book, which she later published.  She fondly recalled,

“While I was painting pictures with my son, I decided to turn our paintings into a little story book for him.  While I was working on the story book, I thought of getting it published and use the income earned as a fund raiser for my tuition and travel.  Due to Covid restrictions, event restrictions, bake sale restrictions, I had to get creative and think about what I could do to earn some extra income without having to add anymore to my plate.  The title of the book is Dragon Meets a Mermaid.”

“I had invested some money from my credit card, while not fully believing in myself, having lots of self-doubt, and questioning if I made the right call.  The day my book was released, I woke up to find that it was listed as #1 for hot new release on Amazon, and #5 for the soft cover version for hot new release, and so many friends and family had shown their support by ordering it.  I am incredibly lucky and grateful for everyone that has shown their love and support for my idea.”

Christine’s family, especially her spouse, had the greatest influence on her desire to learn and continue pursuing her life goals.  “My husband was in the Navy, but he got injured, and Veteran’s affairs pays him.  But I don’t know if they will pay him forever.  I wanted to go back to school so I could earn more income and have financial stability in case the government proposes changes to pension plans or ceases his payments.  I wanted to make sure that my family is taken care of, and I used creativity to help finance my future plans.”

Christine likes the flexibility and convenience that online learning has to offer and is self motivated to keep up with her course schedule.  “Its great!  I can learn at anytime of the day and anywhere I want.  Whether its early morning readings, listening to the audio e-books on my tablet during appointment wait times, or even while doing the dishes or late-night assignments, I can be my own manager at home! When my son gets off from school, I can pick him up or drop him off without having to worry about rushing back to school.  If I was attending the local at the college here, I would have to drive 45 mins to reach school.  I also have to arrange for daycare as well as a nanny to look after him after day care hours, which would be quite expensive.  I would need an assistant to run my entire life.”

The only thing that she finds a little inconvenient is wait time to get answers from tutors.  “Sometimes it takes a day or two for teachers to answer a question depending on  how busy they are,  but most of the time, I can find answers on YouTube, online forums as well as various study groups.”

While making a decision to continue her education, Christine had doubts about online learning.  “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through Athabasca with a university here, so I started upgrading.  Since my son was still young, I had decided to wait until he turned five and started school so that I would have the option to choose which university I wanted for my bachelor’s degree.  Meanwhile, I invested my time in completing prerequisites for nursing school.  My math class was a flex class, and my chemistry class was online.  I also spoke to my colleagues, fellow nursing students at the local university, as well as my manager.  Due to COVID restrictions, colleges and universities were already facing difficulties with online classes since the curriculum was designed for physical attendance.  My manager also reassured me that degrees from Athabasca University were recognized and would assist me in climbing the career ladder.  It was then that I made a decision to attend Athabasca University.  Since I’m pretty motivated and tend to be a self learner, I stick to course schedule and avoid procrastination.”

Christine’s pet peeve is “Shopping carts left on the road, as well as a little excitement/ anxiety felt after submitting the assignment and waiting for the marks to be posted.  It’s always exciting to see how I did on an assignment.”

When asked about which famous person she would like to have lunch with, Christine told me about a very rare event,  “My brother and his wife went on a trip somewhere to another country and there was a painting of a woman who looked a lot like me.  It was a painting of Lady Recamier  in 1777 and she looked almost like my twin.  It would be interesting to sit opposite to a look alike and have lunch with her.”

As for the most valuable lesson she learned in life, Christine jokingly answered, “I still haven’t learnt my lessons.” We both burst out laughing.

On a more serious note, she said something which I haven’t heard in a long time and it replicates my own thoughts and ideas.  “I guess to avoid gossip and just keep to yourself in groups of women.  I feel the need to focus on myself and my goals and not of what other people think of me.  I work with a lot of women, and most of them have a lot of opinions, and I think its good to just be confident in your choices, even if they end up being bad choices, they are your choices.  And, as the millennials say, YOLO.”

Christine cherishes every accomplishment in life and is proud of every achievement.  “I have a lot of proud moments but sometimes my proudest moments are not the most exciting ones.  When I learnt how to use a drill, I was pretty excited.  When I got a letter in the mail stating that I’d got in the nursing program at Athabasca University, I was proud.  Every time I finish a painting and it turns out good I feel great.  When I level up in violin, I feel proud of my hard work.  When I got my own car, I was extremely excited—my husband and I shared a vehicle for the longest time.  When we lived in Victoria we had one family car, but since the bus system was really great, I didn’t necessarily need a car all he time.  When we moved to Vernon, had a son, and I started working at the hospital, life became busy.  I had just paid off my student loan, credit card bills and line of credit so I went out, put myself in debt again and got myself a new car.”

For her television guilty pleasure, Christine enjoyed watching Love is Blind and is waiting for season two.

She is also writing another young-adult book about mermaids (Of course!) which will be published next year

We chatted about children’s books and we both found we agreed on one thought, “A lot of children’s books nowadays have hidden messages, propaganda and hidden things,” she said, “and I always think that can’t kids can be just kids?  Does every story need to have a lesson in the end?  Can’t we just let them imagine and dream?”

We agreed that experience and life teach us lessons in its own way and all of us are destined, through our choices and our fates, to end up being the people we are today.

I want to thank Christine Dubois on behalf of The Voice Magazine for her time, her efforts, her literary contribution, and her future goals.  And I pray that she succeeds in every aspect of her life and continue to fill our lives with her creativity.

Most of us tend to complain that we have too much on our plates, but there are many around us who tend to carry too much on a platter instead of a plate.  Through The Voice Magazine team and AU students alike, we are able to get an insight into the lives of our peers and perhaps learn to be content with what we have.  “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” – Albus Dumbledore

This week The Voice Magazine is grateful toward Brittany Lee Acton who spared some time from her busy schedule to speak with us and share her inspiring life story.

Brittany lives in Saskatoon with her spouse and two kids, one of whom has different needs.  Apart from attaining a certification in women’s counselling, she has almost completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in psychology, and is planning to pursue a master’s degree in the future.

As for her career, she mentioned “I have been working in the field of psychology for several years.  I got a job offer in Saskatchewan shortly after I started my bachelor’s degree at AU and have been working my way up ever since.”

“I switched [between] several jobs before I found one in which I felt safe, comfortable, and well supported by my employer.  Working front line can be very exhausting.  Since I had young kids and I was also studying, it was important for me to have a good work life balance.”

Along her career path, Brittany had faced some difficult times as well.  “I used to work in harm reduction and addictions in the past and there were a couple of occasions where I felt that my physical safety was at risk and I was faced with some life-threatening situations.  It was then that I realized that front line work in that area was not for me, especially since I had a family to take care of.  I would have continued to work in that field if I didn’t have a family, but I prioritized my loved ones over everything else and moved to a different department.”

Although COVID-19 made it more difficult to keep up with work-life balance, Brittany felt that being together made their family bonding stronger.  “Since my son was at high risk of getting sick, both my children had been virtual learning for a year and a half.  They haven’t been back to school since last March, although it was hard at times to focus on work upstairs while kids made a lot of noise downstairs, but it was quite good for me since I had a lot of wonderful relatives who stepped in to help me throughout the pandemic and that really helped in strengthening our ties.  It made us realize the kind of love and support we had and that there is a lot to be grateful for in life.”

Brittany’s greatest influence for the desire to learn was her best friend whose determination and persistence inspired her to take a deeper look into her own life.

“I had been working as a chef for close to a decade and was about to have my first child when I met my best friend.  Mentally, I was not in a great place and she encouraged me to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life as well as invest in myself to achieve my dreams.  After having her first daughter she went back to school and completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social working over the course of having three kids.  Her actions spoke louder than words and she was able to prove to me that anything was possible as long I had the mindset and persistence to do it.”

Brittany’s experience with online learning has been quite positive so far, “I don’t think I would be able to attend school in person since I struggle with strict schedules and routines.  I need to able to do things my own way.  I become very frustrated in a regular classroom environment and online studies allow me to work at my own pace; to spend more time when I have the energy for it and sit back a little bit when I don’t.

“There have been a lot of moments when I had self doubts.  Some of the science-based psychology courses really challenged me, and those were the moments where I questioned whether or not I would be able to have a career in this field.  I have been quite flexible with myself, and I have changed my program of study four or five times since I started my education.  I open to change in my future as long as I can be satisfied and content with what I am doing.”

According to Brittany, Indigenous Studies 301 is her most memorable course.  “I took this course because I needed credit in humanities and it ended up being a favourite of mine.  I think I ended up learning more in that course than most of the other courses.  It was a really inspiring course since it was more relevant to my life, especially since I worked for Women’s services in Saskatchewan.”

As far as communication with course tutors is concerned, Brittany mentioned “Overall it’s been a good experience, tutors are readily available, although sometimes the wait time to get answers to queries have been longer.”

Brittany’s first project as new president of AU would be enhancing liberal arts sector.  She confidently mentioned “Most of the liberal arts course are relatively good but they need to be more up to date and could use more intersectional ends.  I would love to bring those courses in par with current times.”

Her pet peeve is “A lot of people expecting online learning to be an exact trade for in person learning!  They are very different; they both have strengths and weaknesses.  Online learning requires persistence and self motivation whereas making time for classroom learning can be a bit burdensome specially with busy schedule like mine.  It can be hard sometimes when people don’t understand these differences.”

Brittany would love to have lunch with Jack Layton since most of her political foundation is based on his time with NDP.  “I did meet him a number of times when I younger before he passed on.  I would love to be able to learn where his political foundations came from and to see how he got us where we are today.”

When asked about her proudest moment she affectionately answered, “Motherhood has made me very proud of myself; especially since my youngest child has required a lot of attention and advocacy for his care.  I built a support network for him, and I was able to obtain life saving medication not available in Canada.  I have continued to advocate to this day so that everyone with his condition would be able to get access to the medicine if and when they need it.  I know the difficulties that I faced during that time, and I was very proud when I was able to save my son through my efforts.  There were people out there who helped me, and I want to be that person for someone else.”

Brittany allows herself to watch TV once a week and currently she only has enough time to watch The Handmaids Tale.

Brittany’s efforts to take care of her family, her persistence to continue her education, and her endurance to keep going despite having a lot on her platter is truly motivating and inspirational.  It shows that one should always look at the positive aspects of life, never give up, and, most importantly, be grateful with all that life has to offer.

The Voice Magazine thanks Brittany Lee Acton for sharing her story and prays that she achieves success in all aspects of her life.

As a wave of sweltering heat radiated across Canada, and most of us celebrated Canada Day without fireworks and outdoor parades; The Voice Magazine team continued to work tirelessly to bring forward inspirational stories of AU students from all around the world so we can form deeper connections and learn from each other’s life experiences.

This week The Voice Magazine had a chance to speak with Amy Mayer who lives in rural town in eastern Ontario outside of Ottawa—Moose Creek—since she was seventeen.  Currently she resides in her home with her spouse, brother-in-law, two dogs and three cats.

Amy’s journey began with the desire to find out who she was and what she wanted in life.  This journey soon led her to switch from Bachelor of Commerce to Bachelor of Sociology.  Amy has successfully completed Bachelor of Arts in Music and wants to pursue a Masters of Information and Library Science.  She works part-time in library, loves her job, likes to be involved and give back to her community.  In the past, Amy used to give piano lessons and helped at a pizzeria.

Amy’s love of reading and learning drew her towards pursuing a career as a librarian.  “The library content and archive is very important for the community”.  Currently Amy does programming in the library but wants to get more involved in the management side and progress in her career by moving up the ladder.

During her spare time Amy likes reading, playing the piano, crocheting dish cloths, loves hiking, canoeing and wilderness camping every summer.

Amy’s desire to learn was influenced by her parents (both have master’s degrees), “Parents are biggest supports, they are very encouraging.  My mom wants me to rest because she thinks I have too much on my plate.” “My parents support was a form of inspiration, not just in matters of education but also in life matters.”

When asked about her experience in online learning Amy mentions “Through AU I feel I am more connected to the online community since I have a greater online presence”

“I love online learning, although I have read mixed reviews about distance education, but I have no problems so far.  I get fast responses to my queries when I reach out to tutors more, and I really like detailed and helpful feedback on course assignments.”

“I dislike that the social community is very spread out between social media platforms and I wish there was a common ground with more opportunity to connect with students, tutors, and grads”

A far as communication with tutors is concerned, Amy believes that although the communication is fine, she hasn’t reached out to tutors as much as she should have.  “I never had any problems with communicating to course tutors; they are very helpful and have fast response times.  The courses are very well laid out and there are expectations within learning objectives of each course.  When I figure out what is expected of me in a particular course, it becomes fairly easy to meet those expectations and targets”

Her journey towards finding herself caused her to waver and switch programs.  “I was confused about what I wanted to do in life.  There was a point in time while I had taken a macroeconomics course and was struggling emotionally with it when I had a moment of revelation while scrolling through a forum where students were talking about the great essays that they had been writing, I wanted to be them.  I wanted to be able to write great essays as well, so I finally found out that I wanted a Masters in Library Science”

We talked about her favorite characters and people, and Amy would like to have tea, crumpets and strawberry jam for lunch with Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings since he got her through many tough times and was a source of inspiration during her hiking trip.  “I learnt to take a slow journey at a slow pace, to take time in finding one’s self and to believe that there is no right or wrong time; everyone walks on their own pace and that’s alright.”

Amy’s proudest moment was hiking 104 km in seven days as she pushed herself to her limits.

“I love feeling connected to nature.  I feel like it is a way of enjoying and giving back to nature.  I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with it.  Walking is relaxing; when I put one step in front of the other to move forward, my mind feels centered and focused.  Similarly, climbing mountains and overcoming obstacles not only helped me physically but also in my journey in discovering myself.  You don’t realize how strong you are until you’re 60 km in the bush.”

Amy does not watch TV but loves to read.  She prefers to read before bed to unwind and take things slow.  She is currently reading Elfstones of Shannara, a fantasy novel by Terry Brooks.  She immerses in the book and is “alive with the characters”

“Its another journey; reading is my escape to be transported from day-to-day routine and normality and has helped my in my journey of finding myself”

Amy’s journey towards discovering herself by pushing herself to her limits is truly a source of inspiration.  In this fast paced, capitalist society, taking a break to discover one’s self and then following that dream to achieve something meaningful in life is a journey that all of us should undertake in order attain ultimate happiness and satisfaction in life.

The Voice Magazine team thanks Amy for sharing the inspirational journey of her life and wishes her the best of luck in all aspects of her life.

The Voice Magazine has been featuring inspirational stories of AU students from around the world so we can find solace during challenging time and push ourselves to achieve our dreams together.  Help build the AU community, write to voice@voicemagazine.org if you’re willing to be featured in our Minds We Meet column.

This week we were lucky to get in touch with Jessie Goodwin, who was born in Calgary, Alberta, but moved to Ontario with her parents during the early years.  Currently, she resides in her childhood home in Ontario (nearest big town would be Collingwood) with her partner and three kids.

Jessie completed her education in marketing two decades ago and started her own business in the field, but, as her family grew, she came to realize that her interests laid somewhere else.

“I found that as time went on, I didn’t like what I was doing anymore.  It was very time consuming especially with the internet and how businesses were changing online marketing and social media.  It became time consuming, and I didn’t have time for my family, and I also didn’t see it progressing my career the way I wanted, and I just wasn’t satisfied, so I started looking at school options.  It took me about 2 -3 years to decide on a school and what I wanted to do and, when I finally did, I still waited a year before I could enroll just to make sure I wasn’t going to have second thoughts.”

However, Jessie was faced with another challenge just as she started her first semester—COVID-19 lockdown.

“I enrolled right before COVID-19 struck so I was in my first term and my kids were sent home from school; it was a very challenging scramble.  I haven’t been to school in over 20 years, and I found adapting and adjusting to learning again a huge challenge, and then I had to start home schooling because my kids had to do everything online and we had one family computer; my kids did not enjoy the interaction online, and after talking to a teacher we opted to do more learning with me to relieve some of their stress, and then I just printed all their work and submitted it.  So, my essay writing happened at 2am, which was not so bad if I had enough sleep.  Some days I did, and some days I didn’t”

Currently, Jessie is pursuing her Bachelor of Psychology with hopes of getting an internship to gain experience and continue to learn.  As for her future plans she mentioned “I would like to get my masters; not exactly sure which direction; so, I’m going to keep learning as much as I can to see what I’m good at and which area would keep my interest”

Jessie has done jobs in multiple fields from construction to waitressing to sales associate but her interest in psychology developed when she lost loved ones due to mental health issues and the stigma that surrounds mental health.  “The whole ‘let’s not talk about, it is not there’, problem always bothered me… so I thought that I really wanted to investigate, and, also, part of my family are indigenous so it was interesting for me to see the difference between how non-indigenous people address mental health issues and how the indigenous peoples were going to address mental health issues, and how people were going to adapt our programs to actually suit their nations because there is a difference.  So that was the interest for me and I decided that I want to learn as much as I can.”

When asked about her source of inspiration and motivation, she said, “My kids motivated me to move on.  I thought I was always scared to go to school; when I was younger, my parents did not have a lot of money, and money was always an issue since they would get a job that wouldn’t pay well or go to school for a job that you can’t find employment in, so I had a lot of negative views on what the risks were.  So it was really scary for me, but when I looked at my kids I thought to myself that this is not good, I needed them to understand to work hard and to keep putting in the effort to get good results”

“The most inspiring person I ever worked for was a real estate agent. I was his secretary/assistant, and he was self-educated on so many things. He had an amazing library at home, and there were thousands of books in his home.  What he did for me was that he taught me how to think differently about things; that everything a was a challenge and that one should find ways overcome the challenge—and he opened me up to some different motivational and self-help books that I never would have read without him”

Jessie loves to write stories on Wattpad and read books during her free time “I love to write but I’m terrible at grammar.” She is currently reading “The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson in which author is talking to everyone about psychopaths, but it’s not quite that simple.  He makes it ‘a journey through madness industry.’  I haven’t gotten too far into it yet, but  he explains to people that you could literally be walking beside someone and not know that they are a psychopath; you might have met someone today and he might be psychopath; its kind of scary.  The human mind is just fascinating.  We think we know so much about the people beside us when in reality we don’t know anything.”

Her favourite courses so far have been criminology, forensic psychology and Western Civilization History while English, History and Biology courses were challenging.  “The psychology courses are great; some of the courses I take alternately to support them have been hard”

As for her experience with online learning, Jessie mentions “I have a lot of social anxiety so online learning was great because I didn’t have to be in large crowds of people.  I get really anxious if I’m surrounded by people and being a mature student, I didn’t know how comfortable I would be say surrounded by kids’ fresh out of high school I didn’t want to be a mom on campus; but, after joining Athabasca, and AU online community I have learnt how diverse it is; I was really stunned

The challenge is not feeling connected to my tutors properly, I really like the face-to-face conversation with people and learning from watching other people do stuff.  I really like to be able to watch and learn and then do things myself.  I like the classroom-teacher interaction and environment.”

She would love to have lunch with Jane Goodall since “she grew up at a time when women were not exactly seen as equals especially in academic field and I would like to understand what inspired her not to give up.  She just kept going and made such a name for herself, such a difference in everything she chose to do and I would like to know what kept her motivated, how did she keep going”

If Jessie would be chosen the president of AU, she would try to bridge the communication and connectivity gap especially among the indigenous and international students.  “I do notice that there seems to be still a bit of a gap between the understanding of indigenous students’ and other international students; they don’t seem to be connecting.”

As for her pet peeve? “People complaining about things that they are not going to do anything about.  I understand that we need to vent; that’s fine, vent, but once you’re done venting don’t keep complaining about it unless you’re going to do something about it, because its not productive—you’re making yourself feel crappy and you’re making the other people feel crappy.  Vent when you’re frustrated, express your emotions to your desire, but then let it go or do something.”

The most valuable lesson that she learnt in life is “No matter how scared you are you have to try.  If you don’t try, you’ll definitely end up doing nothing”

She confidently said “I think I will.  I’m gonna give it my all because my kids are watching me, they watch me do my homework they watch me prepare for exams and I need them to know that if you put in the hard work, you will get the reward; you might not be the Einstein person but you’ll definitely get the results that are positive.”

Her closing remarks really touched my heart and I’m sure everyone will feel the same way.

“We take so much for granted in our everyday life and its so easy to do that especially in our down days; we all have them; and its so easy to forget how lucky we are to live in Canada and have all these opportunities.”  

The Voice Magazine team thanks Jessie Goodwin for sharing her life story and wish her the best of luck in all aspects of life.

Stay safe, stay strong and remember “we’re all in this together, we’ve got this!”

Can you give us a little bit of background information about yourself? Who are you? Where do you live, where do you come from?

“I came to Canada with my family from Pakistan, seven years ago, when I was 12 years old.  We initially landed in Yellowknife and I started middle school there.  In Pakistan I studied in a private London Board based school so I had no problem with speaking, writing or reading English as most my class fellows and teachers had assumed.

After three months, we went back to Pakistan.  We landed in Calgary after a year in Pakistan and I completed middle school in Calgary.  Finally, we moved to Fort McMurray where I graduated from High school and attended Keyano College for 2 semesters.  Currently, I work in a bank as a CSR, have completed Mutual Funds certification and pursuing Bachelors in Business Management from AU.

Since your childhood was spent in Pakistan, how was your reaction such a big life change?

I had so many mixed feelings that its hard to really put it in words.  Most people here think that Pakistan is like this poverty-stricken nation with slums, etc.  Yes, there are areas like that but mostly in the rural areas.  The cities are quite similar to the ones here in Canada.  I lived in the Capital city of Islamabad and its very similar to Calgary here.  Islamabad is surrounded by the Margalla Hills and is very peaceful.  There is McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Dunkin Doughnuts, and the Centaurus Mall (you can search the google images).  My dad worked in British Petroleum as an petroleum technologist and we were quite well off.  We lived in a huge mansion-like house with a nice backyard with swings and slide, we had housekeepers to do the chores and a personal driver as well.  The housekeepers and driver lived in an annex 24/7.

Due to change of governments and national unrest, my parents decided to migrate to Canada.  My father applied in the Federal Skills category and after 9 months we were packing up to travel to our new home.  My dad took a short-term leave from work. The feeling was similar to first day of school.  I was nervous and sad.  The realization became more obvious when our dream house was put up for sale.  I still remember that me and my two elder sisters wrote letters to that house and buried them in the backyard.  We wrote farewell messages on our cupboards and I cried a lot.  For the first time I saw my eldest sister break down as well.  She was so emotionally strong.  (I should note that this was an emotional subject for Narmeen, who teared up while speaking of this.)

Our departing flight from Pakistan was scheduled for 3am and I will never forget the moment we sat in my dad’s friend’s car to be taken to the airport.  I felt like I was leaving a part of me there.  After travelling for what seemed like ages, we arrived at the Toronto airport and it took forever to get all the paper work sorted out.  My mom’s uncle who lived in Scar Bourgh came to pick us up since we had a 24 hr stay.

When we started to travel from Edmonton to Yellowknife in one of those small aircrafts, all we could see around 20 mins before landing was unpopulated snow-covered land.  When the pilot announced that we were landing, we couldn’t see any signs of an airport.  Then in the middle of snow was an airstrip and we landed.  I was shocked to see that the airport was just one room big with the conveyor belt in the middle with our luggage.  One of my dad’s friend came to receive us but he just walked all the way to the air strip!  Apparently, that’s normal there.  We had already arranged for our accommodation in an apartment in Yellowknife and it was so tiny compared to the mansion we were used to living.  On top of that, it was on the 15^th floor!  The view was stunning.  We could see all the lakes and had the best display of Aurora Lights.  We stayed there for 3 months and joined school in April.  The school had a beautiful lake view and we went to several field trips.  For the first time I learnt about Aboriginal culture and tradition there.  Due to employment difficulties we had to return to Pakistan but it was not the same as before.  We rented a small place in Islamabad and lived there until my eldest sister completed highschool and applied to universities in Canada.  After she got accepted in multiple universities, my dad resigned from work and we left for Canada.

We landed in Calgary and this time it seemed more familiar since it resembled Islamabad.  We rented a house and soon were able to purchase our own.  Another thing I found strange in Canada was using the public transport to go to school.  We were used to cars and drivers and here we were asking around fir buses and transits.

Finally, as things were settling down, we moved to Fort McMurray where my sister and brother-in-law lived.  My dad had better employment opportunities in Fort McMurray since his background was in oil and gas industry.  My dad and brother-in-law purchased a nice big house and we’ve been living together ever since along with my niece and nephews.

So far, our little town has survived the Horse River Fire of 2016 and the flood in 2020.

Both events had occurred in months of April/May.  Thankfully, we managed to escape ahead of time, unharmed and quite prepared.

Since you went through quite a few major live events, what or who motivated you to keep going.  Who did you look up to?

My parents have always been and still are the mountains of strength in every way possible.  They are my Everest of support.  My parents have always put us before themselves.  I don’t remember ever seeing them stressed or sad or even angry in front of us.  They did experience all those emotions and I got to know that quite recently, but in the past, they never let us be aware of any negative emotions or challenges they faced.  They have taught us to be honest and truthful to an extent that I cheated once in a Math test in High school and right after I handed in the paper, I ran to the teacher’s office and told her.  I told her to give me a zero on that test but she just smiled and told me to join a mentoring club as a “punishment”.  I did volunteer at the boys and girls club as a mentor afterwards for a year.

I had decided to complete high school earlier and my parents supported that decision.  I went and asked my counsellor who clearly told me it was not possible to complete more than 50 credits in a year.  My parents helped me think and look outside the box.  After researching and calculating I knew that anything was possible if you had the mind to do it.  I started work at Tim Hortons, applied for volunteering, took several courses online through Distance Learning Alberta and merged Grade 11 and Grade 12 in one year.

My mother was very supportive.  We had spent all our lives literally like royalty and Tim Hortons proved to be the very place that I seemed unfit for.  Its so fast paced and everyone’s like running around so in house training is not easy but everyone there was very helpful and friendly.  After several spills, burns from hot coffee and wrong orders I just thought I couldn’t do it.  I went home that day and just cried.  I was just so overwhelmed.  But my mother applied there as well to uplift my spirit and to show me that if she could handle the stress so could I.  I grabbed onto that thought and pushed myself to continue.  We worked different shifts and for most of the year my life was just school, work, volunteering, and exams.

Through my parents’ motivation, advice and support I was able to graduate High School at the age of 16 and only one person had done that before me 3 decades ago.

When you worked in Tim Horton, was there an event or customer who left a good impression on you? The kind that you’d always remember?

Yes, glad you asked that.  The mention of Tim Hortons reminds me of that customer.  It was the busiest time of the day when the customer came and asked me to make Cotton Candy Iced Capp.  I had no idea what to do.  My supervisors were extremely busy, and some were on break.  I was just going around hopelessly looking for clues while the line up was increasing when the customer called me back to the counter.  He just smiled and asked if I had just joined work and I told him yes.  He just said don’t worry, let me help you, just make a regular Iced Capp with raspberry shot.  I felt such relief at that time.  I will never forget his kindness and patience.  We should all give new workers a chance to assimilate in the workplace instead of telling them off.

Kindness is the principle of Humanity and rudeness can destroy that principle.

What’s your program (if any) and what are your plans for this education once you finish? How does it fit in with where you want to go?

I am in my second year of Bachelor of Business Management and I would like to grow my career in banking to move from customer service/retail to management and leadership position.

What do you do like to do when you’re not studying?

I like amateur writing, reading anything that catches my interest from sloppy love stories to Stephen King.  I also enjoy fitness activities like jogging, roller skating, badminton.  Work keeps me busy the rest of the time.  I also like baking, but only after everyone’s gone to sleep and I have the kitchen all to myself.  Baking helps me relax and calms my mind since it requires little thinking; I just have to follow a step-by-step procedure and the final product is satisfies my sweet tooth.  I play some music (no defined genre), prep the ingredients and I’m good to go.

At what point did you waver the most about continuing your schooling?  What caused it and what got you through it?

When I started work, two years ago, I was attending classes in College but, at times I was called in for work during my days off.  It became difficult to balance work and studies especially since I had to attend classes in a physical classroom.  After a year of juggling, I decided to drop out of college but that also meant that I had to give up on my dream of graduating with a degree and climbing the career ladder.  After reviewing the profiles of some of the managers and leaders within my organization, I became determined to continue my education.  I researched for virtual learning and came across AU in the process.  I was a bit skeptical at first because I had fast tracked high school and had to keep a few courses online so I aware of the problem of procrastination but I knew that I just had to push through to achieve my goals in life.

Describe your experience with online learning so far.  What do you like? Dislike?

Online learning been a good experience for me since I can work without worrying about rushing to attend classes.  The courses are flexible, and extensions are available.  Study schedules are provided with each course so that I could track my progress.  I dislike that there are no recorded lectures available.  I know that the university has a class component as well, so it would be beneficial to record lectures or have some PowerPoint slides available for virtual students; not just “here’s the ebook and guide, now good luck with learning”

What (non-AU) book are you reading now?/What TV are you binging now?

I am binging on Grey’s Anatomy and the Marvel Series.  My friends had recommended the Marvel Series several times but I thought the concept of super heros with super human abilities were far from reality.  But when I started watching, I just couldn’t stop!

Who’s your favourite hero so far?

That’s a tough one.  Captain America!

[Interview and article by Kaisha Nasir]