2014: Year In Review

It's New Year's Eve, so I thought I'd do a year-in-review post.

2014 got very eventful very quickly. Before I could think of what to do for the year, I was being approached with advocacy opportunities. A few, such as attending the CORD conference and speaking to the Rare Disorders Network Parent 2 Parent group, I've written about here. Others, like having my story shared in a blog written by the mother of two little boys with Joubert, I'll write about in a later post, one I get permission. For now, I'll just say it was a great experience.

February, 2014 goes down as the moment when I got my first paying job!

After many years of trying, I finally landed paid employment with a call centre. It only lasted a few months, but it was a major first and very rewarding.

Later in February, I got proactive with writing and advocacy by staring this very blog.

The next major event of 2014 was the Canadian Organization of Rare Disorders (CORD) conference in March. I participated in discussions about genetics, policy and advocacy, and spoke to politicians on behalf of the Joubert Syndrome community.

With May came my second year going solo to the Toronto Comics Art Fest (TCAF) for a weekend in Toronto. I took a train from here to there, got to stay in a suite (which was awesome!), had great weather to walk around, and got the complete series of Bone, a comic I read when I was younger. I even met the creator, Jeff Smith, who signed it for me!

Major fanboy moment!

 Summer was here, there, and everywhere. I went down and stayed with my grandmother for a few days, spent a lot of time at my family's cabin, attended Ribfest for the first time, and went to my first outdoor rock concert: Sam Roberts and Collective Soul at Ottawa Bluesfest!



 

 

 

With Fall, I decided to get pro-active. I started looking for another job, this time using a service provider who specialises in helping people with disabilities look for employment. Nothing yet, but it's been going steadily. I also set up some speaking opportunities for 2015, but more on those later.

Overall, it's been a good year. Cheers to 2015.