Not Your Average Year

I distinctly remember fantasizing about my 30th birthday the day I turned 20:

It will be a new century. I’ll be married to the man of my dreams, have two to three beautiful children and a gorgeous and comfortable home with a white picket fence. 

The only part of that statement that’s an exaggeration is the white picket fence. Not that I discriminate against them (there’s probably an advocacy group somewhere fighting for them) but I really wouldn’t know how to take care of one (or all the beautiful foliage it protects). 

Then, in the blink of an eye, I turned 30, and the only part of that dream that became reality was that it was 2001 (in other words, the only part I had no control over). As the only singleton amongst my besties, I decided to hightail it out of Toronto for the Big Apple, a mere three months after 9-11. (I seriously love a good challenge.)  

You know the tune…”if you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere…”? Well I certainly made it there, but after only a year I realized that home was where my heart was, so I packed up my closet-sized apartment and headed back to the 6ix.

But along with my designer bags and street vendor art pieces, I brought back with me insights and passion about what it means to be Canadian, and an ignited ambition to become an entrepreneur.

Cue the montage and fast forward a couple of decades and here I am. Four businesses, one (former) husband, one incredible child, and an incredible network of friends and business colleagues that I’ve amassed along the way. I’ve lived in eight different homes (not one with a picket fence). I’ve woken up, broken up, soared high and sunk low. And I’m still here. (I’ve even got the tattoo to prove it.)

One year ago today, my calendar read something like this:

  • 8am: Coffee with old friend from high school

  • 9:30am: Fitness class

  • 11:30 to 4pm: Running around town to various client meetings

  • 4:30pm: Pick up Teddy from friend’s house

  • 6:30pm: Girls’ night out

If you told me one year ago, that virtually all of those would not be possible due to a global pandemic I would have guffawed. (What a weird word, but it works!) But here we are, living in one of the strangest, most troubling, yet enlightening times in our history. And it has given us all reason to look back and appreciate what we might have taken for granted, and also realize that we don’t know f*ck all about what the future will bring.

It’s important that we have dreams and goals that drive us to get up and look forward to what’s ahead, but I think we can all agree is that the best we can all do is to make the most of what’s in front of us right now. 

And right now what’s in front of me is lunch, so I’m gonna eat it up.

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The Facts of Life