The short story: I asked.

It’s true. I asked for the job I wanted. I worked hard to make myself indispensable. I studied journalism, and more importantly, I knocked on doors. I shook hands. I sent emails and kept following up until I got a chance. I became comfortable with rejection; I spurred onwards from a “no” to find a “yes.”

The Long Story:

I’ve always loved books and reading. When I was four years old, I sat statue-still in the library while teachers read us stories. I gobbled up Harry Potter as an adolescent. Books were my escape, until one day I decided I wanted to write my own stories. I was nine years old when I penned my first book during a summer camp in Naramata, BC, at a book-making course.

Wise women honed their craft and I created a fictional character who played the violin and didn’t fit in. He felt useless, until the orchestra needed a strings player, and he found his place. I personally bound the book and still own the single copy.

At 14 years old, when adults were asking, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I decided I wanted to be a writer. I told my mom. “You can do that as a hobby, but not as a career,” she replied.

Ah, my first rejection.

My mom is my biggest supporter, marketer and number one fan, who reads everything I write, even this blog. I love you mom, and thank you for your first rejection, because it spurred me to do something I might not have otherwise: prove her wrong.

I wrote a story and submitted it to a contest at my local library. When I won, the notice came with prize money of around $200.

I waved the cheque in front of my mom’s face and said, “I made money writing.”

Her jaw dropped, she grinned at me and said, “you can do whatever you want.”

From Fiction to Travel

After I graduated from high school, I travelled abroad with my then-boyfriend and his brother and best friend. Although I’d been lucky to travel internationally with my family to the USA, China and Europe, this was my first taste of overseas adventures without “adult supervision.” I forged a deep passion for travel when my ex dumped me in Bali.

The boys I’d been travelling with had a travel blog. I created my own, and I found a niche for my writing: travel. I wanted to get paid to combine my two passions, travel and writing. I wanted to be a travel writer.

Upon returning home from my trip, I wrote a story about travelling through Australia called “A World Away” and submitted it to an award through the Writer’s Guild of Alberta. I won, and this time the cash prize was a few hundred dollars more. It gave me more encouragement and confidence.

My intention was to keep travelling and writing, submitting stories wherever I could. I applied for a UK work visa and travelled to northern Scotland where I worked as a waitress in a hotel in a small town called Wick.

One day, I went to the office of the local newspaper and knocked on the editor’s door, my heart pounding in my chest. I handed him a carefully curated portfolio of my writing and told him that I was an award-winning travel writer from Canada. He glanced at my clippings and said he’d love to have me as a recurring travel columnist for the newspaper, but, unfortunately, they couldn’t pay me.

I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Ecstatic.

They wanted me to write for them?!

I didn’t care about the money. No payout could have matched the feeling when I walked into the grocery store and saw a newspaper with an article that had my name on it.

Too soon after, tragedy struck, and my travels were grounded for awhile. My illusion of the perfect vagabond future I’d already created for myself in my mind shattered, along with everything I knew about my life, health, happiness, safety and family. It was a dark time.

Luckily, my mom convinced me to enroll in a Writing and Publishing program at Okanagan College. Studying hands-on publishing skills at a small college in Kelowna helped me find some semblance of stability and meaning. It also taught me hard skills about creative writing, the publishing industry and the Oxford comma that no amount of travelling could have.

When I graduated with my diploma, I transferred into my third year of a Journalism degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

Many of my classmates decided they would transition to Communications due to the decline of available journalism jobs. Luckily, we had a great Dean who assigned us projects to pitch stories to different publications. I wrote pitch after pitch to magazines across the country, never hearing back. Even a rejection would have been exciting, because it would be a reply. Eventually, I connected with an editor over Twitter, who invited me to attend a travel writing conference in Vancouver, due to my decent following on the platform.

I skeptically showed my Dean the message. “Do you think this is real?”

He gave me a massive grin, looped his thumbs through his belt buckle, and said, “There’s only one way to find out.”

When I arrived in Vancouver, my mom walked me through the hotel doors. I saw the editor shaking hands in the lobby. I nervously introduced myself, then explored the travel booths representing destinations asking me to come visit, all expenses paid. I couldn’t believe this was a real job.

I spotted the CEO of the company and grabbed one of the cards I’d printed out at Staples. I went up to him, shook his hand, gave him my card and said, “I’d love to work for you one day.”

After the conference, I kept emailing the editor I’d met about a story I wanted to write. I wore him down enough that he finally just accepted my pitch. He assigned me an article for British Columbia Magazine to write about hikes. I’d receive a pair of hiking boots to test and be paid $200 for my words.

I screamed, danced and jumped around the room.

I calmly replied yes, and immediately pitched more and more stories to Canadian Traveller, British Columbia Magazine and Explore, all publications co-owned by My Passion Media. I often skipped school to stay home and write articles, once penning five in day. I figured this work was more important than school, as this was what I was studying for.

As summer loomed, I asked the editor if there was any chance of an internship. “Would you need to be paid?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied, surprised, although I suggested I could do the internship part-time and find a part-time job at a coffee shop or bar to afford living for three months in Vancouver.

“No, we’ll pay you,” he said.

Soon after, a well-known photographer came to campus to give a lecture. When he heard that I’d secured an internship with BC Magazine, he asked me how. “It says they don’t do internships on their website,” he refuted. “How’d you get one?”

“I asked.”

That internship cemented my future. On my first day, I met that CEO I’d shaken hands with at the office.

In my fourth and final year of journalism school, I travelled to South Korea for a semester abroad. I continued freelancing, mainly for Canadian Traveller.

I learned I’d be receiving an award at graduation: I had achieved the highest grades in the faculty, so I was bestowed the TRU Medal of Journalism. It’s still one of the awards I’m most proud of.

I applied for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction at King’s College in Halifax to write my still-to-be-published memoir. I knew I didn’t want to do crime reporting or news, which are very important, but not my passions. I wanted to be a travel writer; I wanted to write books, guidebooks and long-form impactful pieces. I wanted to change the world with my stories or, at the very least, reach someone else and let them know that they’re not alone.

As a limited residency program, my Master’s only required me to be in Nova Scotia for a few weeks each summer. My classmates and I also travelled to New York City and Toronto in the winter to learn from agents, editors and authors, and pitch our books. Through it all, I was working on contract, mainly for explore, when I was offered an amazing opportunity: if I would move to Vancouver, they’d hire me full-time.

It was an icy, frigid winter in Montreal, and I loved Vancouver during my internship, so I agreed.

My job was never advertised; I didn’t apply for it. As online magazines grew, so did the need for a permanent employee, and I stepped up when it was offered, because I was already there.

Now, I’ve worked for Explore Magazine for over eight years. I’ve seen many transitions and changes in the company, and in the industry. I’ve worked my way up from an intern to a freelancer to editorial assistant to online editor to managing editor. My next step is to be the overarching editor, taking full responsibility for the print magazine. You should see me writing the editor’s letter very soon.

I’ve kept asking for what I want.

I won’t stop.

I’ve also kept pitching story ideas to other publications, often getting rejections and sometimes getting acceptances. I’ve written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Fodor’s and more.

I’d love for younger me to see me now.

I’m still working on building my career. My biggest goals right now are to write for the New York Times and Lonely Planet, and to become the editor-in-chief for explore. One thing is for sure: I’ll keep asking for what I want and working hard to make it happen.

Thank you for reading my story. I appreciate your support if you want to comment, like and subscribe. Follow me on Instagram, leave a comment about reading this blog and I’ll follow you back.

I hope you find your dream job, too, whether it’s writing or editing or painting or teaching. Let’s keep cheering each other on to pursue our passions in this big, strange, beautiful world.