February 10, 2011

I have been so tired, overwhelmed, and stressed that I haven't been able to update Xanga for a long long time (As in real update). So as I sit here thinking about all the things that are still on my "To do" list, which never ends, I'm finally taking the time to update for lets say...ten minutes? about things that have been happening between last week and this week.

You see, just this past week, I was chosen as a candidate for the Tri Cities Chamber of commerce youth mentorship program. I applied in the latter part of last year hoping to be accepted because a classmate of mines told me that mentorship programs were a great way to start your connections. The deadline for accepting applicants was early January and naturally they were supposed to have candidates a week or two later. But somehow they phoned me up on Sunday and asked if I was still interested (which I said yes) so tada just this Tuesday night I got off work at 5pm to go to the 6:20pm orientation.

The orientation was brief but I got to meet up with my mentor, Dennis Marsden who works as branch manager at Westminster Savings. We talked for a bit about my goals (which were so broad and vague that we were both lost) and he started helping me pin point what I needed to realize and do to improve and find out what career I'm truly passionate about. He's such a motivating mentor that I really look forward to our meetings for the next 3 months. Basically for the next three months he will be guiding me through creating business plans or setting career goals, as well as develop my networking skills and helping me establish connections within the finance industry (if I wish to pursue finance). Pretty cool eh? =] My first assignment is to think up of 5 past experiences within the last 6 weeks where I've met someone I don't know and have been introduced to him / her or a networking experience (I told Dennis that I'm not good at networking). I also get to be part of the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce Communications Committee where we brainstorm ideas and help create better business plans.

Aside from that, on the same day that I got the phone call from the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce, my mom, my aunt, and I went to look at townhouses within the Tri-cities area and my mom made a deposit for a townhouse. So right now we are planning to move at the end of July. Can you believe it? I'm MOVING. That hasn't happened for 6 years now and the last time we moved it was only next door. This time its finally some blocks away =o=.

And last week's finance night kind of blew me away because not only was it my first time networking, but it was also my first time meeting employers from the finance industry and the first time I realized that maybe these type of networking events aren't for me. The only reason people go to these networking events is to establish connections so they can find a job (students) and find a good employee (employer). I guess there's nothing wrong with that but when you actually make an event where everybody knows that everybody else just wants connections, it makes you wonder what people are thinking about you when they talk to you. Are they really trying to "talk" to you, or do they just want to know you well enough to know whether to talk to the person next to you instead (not to waste their time) or stay in a conversation with you? I managed to talk to two professionals after the whole night (but even then I didn't talk much because I was so tired from work) and one of them (who's actually the marketing and communications director for SFU Business-nothing to do with finance =P ) gave me their card and told me to find them if I needed help with anything.

I loved the food at Fairmont though (where Finance was held)...pretty amazing =].

Work has been really hectic for me because half the time I don't really understand what I'm doing. I'm usually given a number of tasks and then left to sit there wondering what I'm supposed to do to get these things done. I check my work email everyday where I get a number of enquiries, orders, transactions etc etc and now I'm starting to work on mini projects such as researching hotels and catering services. In case you're wondering what my company does, its a company that provides training in the areas of Service Oriented Architecture (IT stuff) and give out certification when they pass their exams. Companies throughout the world cooperate with us to learn about these things and boy are we expanding fast...

As for school...well, lets just say I'm not spending much time on it. I usually try to read the chapter one week ahead (during weekends) due to the reason that I'm just too tired during weekdays. The longest record I have at work is currently 14 hours a day so you can just imagine how little time I have of my own. I basically eat, work, school and sleep and um...yes, I have no life during the week lol.

Tomorrow morning I will go up to SFU for the exchange orientation because guess what? I finally got nominated to be one of the candidates! I'm totally excited about exchange but at the same time a bit nervous because I still don't know where I'm going. I really want to go to Denmark but before tomorrow SFU won't tell me which University is accepting me as an exchange student...

As my time schedule is getting tighter and tighter, I realized that there are so many opportunity costs. For example, I had to cancel my meeting with Stokehouse (I am cooperating with them for a small project I believe?) in order to go to the mentorship meeting, and I have to give up my part time job (at least for this month) in order to be able to dedicate time to the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce committee and mentorship program.

But you know...throughout these whole few weeks God has never let me down and has only pushed me farther and farther to test my capabilities. He's shown me how ignorant I've been to so many things out there (including my job because I seriously am pretty dumb in everything that I do-I make too many mistakes too often!) but at the same time He's shown me that I can change. Last Saturday CCF UBC and CCF SFU went up to SFU to do prayer walks and as I walked around SFU praying aloud I just felt that God's presence is ever so strong in my life. Now. and tomorrow. and forever.

Another thing I can't wait is the CCF retreat camp this week. =] 2 days 2 nights oh what fun.
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My life is so unstable now that I have something to look forward to every single week! As I've put on my facebook status: "Everyday is such a surprise for me now...what's next?"

I'll call it a night on xanga here. =]