The weather has finally started to change and I’m loving the gradual transition into the next season. I mean summer is great and all, but I’m really looking forward to the coolness of fall.

August came with some rather exciting news for me. As you already know, for those who’ve followed my story at least, Trillium Health Partners was where I got all my treatments done. Well, a few weeks ago, I found out that they finished an article on my cancer journey and will be using it for their philanthropy department to help raise funds for oncology. In addition to using my story, the hospital invited me to speak at its Women in Drive golf tournament fundraiser that’s coming up in September. I’m stoked, can you tell?! The plan is to speak on how Trillium literally changed my life and to somehow tie the talk in with my childhood experiences, which is pretty much the direction that my book will take. 

This month also marked the one year anniversary of my lumpectomy and it was around the same time that I received the news from Trillium. I’ll admit, with everything going on at the same time, I can’t really say that I was emotional, although it did make me reflect back to the beginning of my cancer journey and to be super thankful for where I am today. It also helped me realize the importance of sharing my story to help others out there to be on top of taking good care of themselves. 

I look back to last year when I was trying to figure out my speaking engagements. I can say that I am definitely still on track to fulfilling that goal. And great news! I just landed a speaking gig to be the keynote speaker for an international event, come October, that will be broadcasted both in the States and in Canada. Hello, somebody! I can’t wait to share more details in full but for now, just know that it is an event to empower women in different facets of their lives, not just in business but emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Here’s a quote I recently came across that I’d like to share with you.

“Empowerment is realizing you are the one who needs to say the things you’ve waited your entire life to hear.”

Let that resonate! Listen ladies, around here, we don’t look down on ourselves, we don’t quit and we sure don’t settle. As I’m more than certain that life has thrown each of you unexpected challenges, guess what? We’re fighters and we’ll keep striving and refuse to let ourselves be intimidated by life's tests.

Well, that was encouraging! Anyways, speaking of life’s tests. I went back to work two weeks ago after almost a year off and I didn’t know how to act LOL. Technically, I’m back on a part time basis so it’s not as bad as I make it out to be. My hours are set to increase every two weeks and I expect to be back to full time by the beginning of October. I know I just started two weeks back but I actually have 5 weeks of vacation that I need to use up between now and December (don’t ask me how I plan on making that happen) and I’m thinking that this ain’t going to work with the outside still not fully opened up. But yeah, going back to work after almost a year off is bittersweet in a sense, bitter, because I’m losing some of my free time and adding more stress and sweet because there’s an added layer of what was once normal before all this. So I’m kind of happy to go back to normalcy but at the same time feeling a type of way since I won’t have that much time on my hands again. First world problems, I tell you!

The bottom line is that I aim to get back into the balance of work and running my business with this new lifestyle of working out each day and taking it easy on myself. I see it going very well in the long run because I know that moving forward, I plan on saying “no” a lot to whatever doesn’t bring me joy, happiness or peace, seeing as I’ve a new found focus in life, which is me.

Talk soon!