Hi I’m Shauna. I’m a first generation millennial Canadian.
One of my earliest childhood memories is of dragging my three-year-old sister to piano lessons on the city bus. Eight-year-old me was determined to get to our lessons – a 20 min bus ride plus five-minute walk from our house and get there and back – all on one transfer. Eight-year-old me couldn’t understand why we would pay twice for the journey when we could pay once.
I can see the error of my ways today. But eight-year-old me saw how difficult it was for my mom, who worked both night and day shifts, to come up with the $3.20 fare each week. I had seen her stare despondently at the bills. I’d seen her come in from a night shift only to shower, get three hours of sleep, and go to a second shift. And I’d seen the tears in her eyes when the money she worked so hard to earn didn’t last through the month.
My childhood brain thought the best way for me to help was to ease the burden by cutting expenses anywhere possible. So, every week, I dragged my little sister, running as fast as her little legs could carry her, to the piano teacher’s house to get there and back for $1.80 half of what it should cost.
Growing up as a Caribbean immigrant I saw a lot of hardship in our community. Most of us were first generation trying to build lives in a foreign country where we didn’t know the rules and didn’t fit in with the people. I watched my parents struggle with racism and discrimination, trying to get citizenship, and trying to put food on the table without the support of family members who were thousands of miles away.
I saw our elders give so much of themselves to their jobs. Most of the men were tradespeople in the oil patch who sacrificed time with their families working far up north for weeks and months at a time. Many of the the women worked as nurses, nursing attendants, and other helping professions taking care of the sick and elderly. From them I learned that work was the way to stability. I watched my parents work for more than forty years, but I can’t say their work gave them purpose or fulfilment.
I started working at 14 and haven’t stopped for nearly three decades. After years of navigating the corporate world, I want something more. This blog is a place to share the things I’ve learned about work, personal finance, and having a fulfilling life.