Last week was a whirlwind, to put it mildly!
To begin with, the Friday before last, I was notified of a date of June 11 for surgery to replace the tubes in my ears. I'd been waiting for this for a year so, despite the very short notice, I took it. But that meant dealing with a flurry of last minute calls, meetings, and appointments. And a lot of driving, in the case of my Dad!
After a few days of hearing tests, pre-ops, and putting in a week's worth of work in roughly one day, Thursday was surgery day. A few minor complications with my oxygen levels, but everything went pretty well!
But wait! If you think surgery was the highlight of my week, you'd be wrong...
Amidst all that aforementioned craziness, something pretty awesome happened.
A couple months ago, I was notified by my job coach that LiveWorkPlay was in the process of putting my name up for consideration for an award. They went to several coworkers from CanNor and got more good info than they actually needed. Roughly a month passed, and I was told that I'd won! Aside from my family, I had to keep it a secret until the official announcement.
That official announcement came last Wednesday evening during an awards dinner which was part of the 31st annual conference for the Canadian Association for Supportive Employment (CASE), where I was set to accept the Philip Emerson Award for Employment Excellence, an award that "recognizes an outstanding individual that has made significant contributions to the promotion of full citizenship and personal capacity through employment and innovation within the workplace in Canada."
My parents and sister were with me, of course. Also in attendance were my job coach and several other members of LiveWorkPlay.
I'll be honest and admit that the scope and significance of the award didn't hit me until the moment it was being announced. Presenting it to me was Philip Emerson himself (really good guy), whose intro touched on my time with LiveWorkPlay, starting at CanNor and eventually moving to Communications, and my work with CanNor's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) committee.
I walked to the stage, past a standing and cheering crowd, graciously accepted the award, and gave a small impromptu speech, thanking everyone and emphasizing the independence and joy the job at CanNor has given me!
After my award, and listening to an amazing speech by one of CASE's founders, we were directed to the lobby for photos.
It was a heck of a night, one that I still can barely fathom nearly a week later!
I remember a moment a couple days before the ceremony where I actually wondered aloud "Why?" and "What's the point?" But a day or two after, a friend whose family I've known for quite a while now, posted on Facebook about her teenage daughter, who has Joubert syndrome like me, getting her first job at a Lego mini-figure store with the help of a group like LiveWorkPlay. Put things right into perspective!
Infinitely big thank-you's to my family, coworkers, and all the folks at LiveWorkPlay and CASE for making this possible.
Cheers!
