Career Mapping

     I was going to title this Fatima Kelly's career mapping for the soul but it would have been too long a title. Instead of blogging this year's resolutions and breaking them. I'm going to write about some of my possible future goals. If all goes well I'll be going back into post-secondary education in the Fall. It's all a matter of which school and which program I decide to go into.

     I got accepted into University of Guelph for one of their bachelor of arts program, an honours program in Sociology. I got accepted into Conestoga College for their bachelor's (and co-op) in Community and Criminal Justice and bachelor's (and co-op) in Public Relations. For this blog post I'm going to go through these programs one by one and see how it could affect my future career. All of the programs are four years for completion.

Bachelor's (and co-op) of Public Relations (Conestoga College)

     I'll start with the bachelor's degree program at Conestoga College for Public Relations. I was previously in a Journalism diploma program at Centennial College in Toronto but had changed my mind. Public relations is still connected to journalism in many ways. I would still be working towards being a voice for the people who hire me.

     One of the reasons why I applied for this program is because successful event planning and hosting gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I also have an interest in business marketing and advertising so being in public relations would give me the opportunity to help run a company.

     This program also has a co-op, meaning I have the chance to work in this field for school, so after school I would have a higher knowledge of what the career will pertain.

Bachelor's (and co-op) of Community and Criminal Justice (Conestoga College)

      Why go into criminal justice? Simple. I want a financially stable 9am-5am type of government job. Also my preferences have changed quite a bit the last couple of years. 

     I used to read young adult adventure and romantic comedy novels. Since a year or two ago I decided to read adult novels to challenge myself. Unfortunately most of them were boring or irrelevant to me. I couldn't relate to the stories where they're done with college and the problems they have now are who they're involved with or unemployment. What caught my attention were the murder mystery/crime solving novels. 

     I'm currently reading another crime solving novel by James Patterson. Not surprisingly I've lost count of how many James Patterson books I've read thus far. He's been my go-to for a good read. I've read the Nancy Drew detective series by Carolyn Keene back in elementary school. Nancy Drew was my fictional idol when I was in my pre-teens. I'm re-inspired to fight for justice (now that sounds like something Sailor Moon would say). 

     

Bachelor of Arts: Honours in Sociology (University of Guelph)

     In my watered down definition, Sociology is the study of society, the why and how it functions. It's the breakdown of how people behave and how the world's economic structure is dependent on how we live. One of the electives I took in Grade 12 was economics and one of my required classes for journalism at Centennial College was economics. 

     My friend had told me that a majority of the sociology classes are the same as the criminal justice classes, I'm booking an appointment with a student adviser at the university to be certain. After doing some online research I realized the possible careers with a sociology degree overlap with what I was already looking into...I could become a public relations officer.

      Does that solve my problem between choosing which school and program to accept? Nope. University in itself is different than college (also more expensive). I've already taken a year of college so I know what it's like and it wasn't too difficult. The difficult part was staying interested in journalism. I did well in all of my other classes except for my actual reporting class. College classes were still difficult to stay focused in and university classes have a far larger workload. 

Here's pictures of me in Toronto happily skating, not thinking about the future 

Harbourfront Skating Rink, photo credits to Dyan (01/30/16)

     I'll most likely blog again after I've chosen what program to confirm acceptance to.      

Until then, Fatima 

First Time: Paintballing

     Yesterday night my friends Miffy, Rawle, Scott, and I went paintballing in Kitchener. It was actually suppose to be last Friday night but I had to go to Mississauga to visit family. I finished my midnight work shift Thursday morning, so I didn't get much sleep in before paintballing. I got picked up by Rawle around 5:30pm and we drove to Kitchener to get Miffy and Scott then to the paintball place which was in Kitchener as well. We ended up starting paintball at 6:30pm and ended up staying until 9:30pm. We left earlier when we could've stayed for longer because we had plans to go out for dinner.

Rawle, Miffy, Me, Scott (11/6/15)

     When we first got to the place we had to register and sign a waiver form online. 

     "So I'm basically signing an agreement that if anything happens to me it's my own fault" I commented aloud. 

      "Haha yeah, pretty much" The guy signing at the other computer replied.

     Rawle and Scott had already gone paintballing at this place. It was me and Miffy's first time. Rawle even brought his own paintball gun while Scott, Miffy and I used rentals from the paintball place. After Miffy and I watched the safety training video, we filled up our paintball guns with paint balls and put our face masks on. 

     Getting started at 6:30pm there may have been about seven people per team. The employees were the ones who created the teams, so at the beginning I was on the same team as Miffy and Scott while Rawle got put onto the other team. Rawle eventually joined us when the numbers per team changed.

Paintball Squad

Round One 

     

     Round one and I got shot in my left leg within a minute of starting. I was sad about that so for the next round I decided to take as much cover as I can so I could try to last a round. 

Round Two

     Round two I took better cover and I surprisingly became the last one standing on my team. Within a minute of the game ending I got shot in the face. I was understandably very startled when it happened. Afterwards the guy that hit me saw that I was putting a tissue to my nose that was bleeding a little. He apologized and admitted that he hadn't meant to hit my face (I'd hope so). After that round one of the employees switched him over to my side, probably so that wouldn't happen again. Since then the guy who shot me had been helping me in the other rounds by telling me which places where safe and which places to keep a look out for.

Why So Serious

   Other Rounds 

     While the other rounds were a blur to me, quite literally too since I couldn't wear my glasses with the face mask on. It wasn't too bad, I could still distinguish who was on my team and who wasn't. The people on my team usually stayed on my side and walked towards the same way we're directed to pass. Although I'm considering getting contacts for the next time I got paintballing. Anyways I was finally able to shoot one guy out. I was pretty ecstatic about that. 

     Since more and more people kept joining the teams it got easier to not be seen and shot during the games. As a result of that I didn't get to use my paintball gun that much so my friends told me I should move around a bit more. I was enjoying just crouching down behind something with a clear view of who was coming my way but I suppose they had a point. For the last rounds I'd follow behind my friends to change different viewpoints. 

     Overall it was a fun and unforgettable experience with friends and I hope to do it again. The next time I won't wear as much layers. The paintballs don't hurt as much as you think it would. Unless you get shot in the face. I'll also wear gloves like the other players did. I'm even considering buying camouflage clothes just for the sake of it. 

Smiles All Around

Dinner

     Rawle suggested going to the Mongolian Grill (also in Kitchener) for dinner. Rawle and Miffy had already eaten there for dinner before but Scott and I hadn't yet. It was cool, they grill the food that you picked right in front of you. By the time I got home it was before midnight but I was already too exhausted to get started on this blog post. 

Mongolian Grill, Kitchener

     This morning Chloe purchased Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas' "Future Now: The Tour" concert tickets online for us, her friend Nick, and Isabel. The tickets went on general sale today. The concert will be on Saturday, July 23rd, 2016. The first concert I ever attended was actually last year in Toronto with Chloe and her older sister for Demi Lovato's "The Neon Lights Tour" concert (3/26/14). So I'm more than excited to see her perform again. 

Until then, Fatima

Happy Halloween 2015 (Late Post)

     Yesterday was one of the best days of the year, Halloween! I was going to go as an evil witch but changed my mind and went as an evil queen instead. I didn't have a witch hat but the flower crown I made for an evil fairy Halloween costume two years ago would just have to suffice as a evil queen crown. My sister was a ninja.

Getting Ready (10/31/15)

My friend Chloe was headed to St. Catherine's Halloween night so she could visit a friend who goes to Brock University so she dropped by our friend Henry's place to grab a costume to borrow for her brother. She also wanted to see us before she left to greet us a Happy Halloween so I just walked over to Henry's so I could see her too before she left. 

           Henry, Chloe, and I 

     My sister Bridgette and I went to the mall again, this time with my friend Kristina accompanying us. We met up with my godson DJ and his parents and went around the mall together. Kristina and I saw that our friend Stephanie was at the mall too with her family and caught up a bit. After we stopped by most stores we decided that the treat action wasn't high enough so we decided to just go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. When we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, I saw another one of my friends, Craig. He was helping his friend hand out candy so we said hey, got our treats then went about our way.

Me and Minnie Mouse Kristina, Ninja Bridgette and Ninja DJ, Bridgette and I

     DJ went home early so Bridgette, Kristina, and I trick-or-treated for another hour until we decided to go home. It was good timing too because about an hour later it started to rain. When we got home we watched Cinderella (2015) on Netflix while we ate some of the treats we obtained from the night. Kristina got picked up to go home after the movie. Even though it wasn't that late, it was a little after 10 pm, I was tired and got ready for bed. I cleansed my face of all the make up I had on (took longer than one would hope), brushed my teeth, and got into my pajama's. As I got into bed I brought my laptop with me and was planning on blogging and afterwards watch a couple episodes of Once Upon a Time on Netflix.

Cinderella (2015)

     Shortly after I was comfortable I opened up my internet browser. As I did that I was getting a notification from my cell phone that someone was calling. When I saw who it was my first thought was "Oh no". It was Henry calling. He had work so he wasn't able to go out for Halloween. I was clearly already content where I was so when I answered the phone I was going to say no to hanging out, but turns out it wasn't him on the other line. It was his sister, Michelle. Who he probably got to call me because he knew there would be a lesser chance of me saying no then.

    Long story short, it's a Halloween Saturday night and I got baited to get out of bed to join them in whatever they were doing. It was around 10:30 pm and we were driving around the neighborhood. They were looking for a house that still had it's lights on so they could make me go up to the door to trick-or-treat at. First off I had no costume since I had already changed into pajama's, then changed into a sweater and sweatpants, secondly I had no bag, and thirdly it was raining and cold out.

     We drove a little bit until we found a house with the front lights still on. Thankfully there are no pictures I can add onto this blog post but Henry and Michelle both took videos which I hope will not surface the internet because it was an embarrassing experience, something I seem to get whenever I hang out with them. I got bored sitting in a parked car outside the house for quite some time. But we weren't moving until I went out there. Then I jokingly agreed that if I had a bag I'd go. Henry got a purse from the trunk and said Michelle would join me.

     I didn't have a hood or an umbrella and it was still raining so I reluctantly put my jacket over my head and ran towards the house. I knocked on the door (it was almost 11 pm now and trick-or-treaters should be long gone) and waited for someone to answer. Michelle was beside me recording and Henry was behind us also recording. The man that came to the door looked a little startled, I said "Trick-or-treat!" and held out the purse. Michelle, who was still in her Halloween costume, also said trick-or-treat and held out her jacket pocket. The man then turns around to where they kept their treat stash then turns backs to us and says "Sorry but we're already out".

     After that we finally drove to their home and watched some episodes of The Flash. And that's how my Halloween this year went. If next Halloween was anything like this years, I'll be sure I don't make plans to go to bed before midnight because it just won't happen.

Until then, Fatima 

Constantly Inconsistent

     Well, well, well, it's been about seven months since my last blog post and I think I've gone full circle. My last blog post was about my friends robotics tournament in March and last week I went back to my old high school to sit in on an robotics meeting. During the meeting I met and made a new friend, her name is Rosa. In the process I practically gave away my entire life story in regard to having to explain time and time again what I've been up to or what I'm planning on doing. It comes up more often than not.

     I have started to summarize the ventures I've come across these past couple months in an unpublished blog post but I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. I just keep remembering more happenings and have kept adding them in. As a means to an end I'm going to state where I'm at and why I'm here. As for what's suppose to be next, I can't write about it since I'm quite uncertain myself.

     I'm back in Guelph because I'm not currently in school. I'm taking the year off. In the college program that I was in I was doing extraordinary in all of my other classes. Except for the class that I was supposed to be majoring in. I realized that this poses as a problem. So I took a step back, looked within, and realized that I didn't want to major in journalism anymore. I've wanted to be a journalist since I was just my sister's age, seven years old. When I realized that for what I've wanted to be for more than a decade didn't seem to be my calling anymore it was tough. The whole thing about life is that it's constantly inconsistent. Always changing. I was grasping onto loose straws, 

     Presently I'm working full time midnight's at a car parts factory in Guelph. I've been employed as a production employee for a month now and was previously working a summer part time job at Costco as a front end assistant. To bring things a little more up to speed, two months ago I turned 19 years old. For my birthday weekend I threw a little birthday party for myself and was surrounded by loved ones. Then and there I realized that as long as I've got a good support system I was going to be just fine. 

     Now I don't know what's to become of this blog. Unfortunately I've forgotten about it most of the time. I've even got friends who insist for me to write more often because they know it helps me. It's just difficult to get back into again, as is every other thing. I keep telling myself that when some event comes up I swear I'll write a blog post. So finally this time around, even if I'm a day late, I'm going to write a blog post about Halloween yesterday in a separate blog post so it doesn't take away from this one.

     Just going to add one of my favourite pictures from the time that's passed onto here because when I published this blog post without a picture it looked incomplete.

Van Wagner Beach, Hamilton (5/19/15)

Until then, Fatima     

Amateur Hour

Robotics Groupie (03/06/15)

     Last Thursday a friend of mine from Guelph, Henry, was in Toronto for a robotics competition. I wasn't able to see him that day because I ended class late but I saw him Friday and Saturday. The competition was held at Maple Leaf Gardens. Henry is the current captain of my former high school's robotics team. When he told me they were over there I paid a visit to support them. Unfortunately I had just missed the actual competition of the day since I just came after school.

Beaverworx Robotics

     I was able to watch them practice for the next day's competition. I was practically the team's "groupie" (a groupie is someone who follows a group of celebrities around because they're a fan). I followed Henry, Billy, and Anh around and greeted the rest of the team members. I brought my DSLR camera because I wanted to take pictures but I ran into some difficulties with the settings. Fortunately Billy brought his DSLR so I asked for some guidance on mine. Henry cracked a joke that for someone who has a class in photography I should probably get a handle on my camera. I'm still learning.  

     Nearing the end of the day around 7 pm, they played a movie called "Spare Parts". It's a recently released robotics movie so it was relevant to the event and meant to inspire. They provided free popcorn to go along with it. It was a nice way for all the robotics team members and their mentors to wind down and relax. After the movie Henry made one of their mentors walk me home, even though I've walked alone during the night before.

"Spare Parts" movie at Maple Leaf Gardens

Another Visitor (03/07/15)

     I had woken up Saturday morning to several texts from my friend Dyan. She messaged me saying she was in Toronto and wanted to hang out. She said she notified me two weeks ago that she'd come down in two weeks. So of course I wouldn't have been able to remember. Anyways her main reason for being in Toronto was to support the robotics team. She was a part of the robotics team last year.

Me, Dyan, and Henry in his beaver mascot costume

     Dyan and I stayed to watch the robotics competitions until the end. Their robotics team, Beaverworx 2609, ended up coming in third place! What an achievement! Dyan and I congratulated Henry and the team on their hard earned win. Afterwards Henry and the team headed back to Guelph so Dyan and I just hung out until she had to leave. Out of all the places we could have gone to we ended up just going to Eaton's Centre. We weren't going to walk around outside that day anyways since it cold and raining.

     The first store we entered was the Disney store. Upon entering I mentioned that I've always wanted an Eeyore stuff toy. Seconds later I see her getting in line with a large Eeyore stuff toy in her arms. I started to debate with her the reasons why it's not necessary for me to have. She ended up purchasing a small plush toy for one of her other friends while still getting me an Eeyore stuff toy but a smaller version of the one she previously held. For the rest of the evening her and I were just walking in and out of stores while also catching up on what has been going on in each other's lives.

Cute little Eeyore keeping me company

     After we got tired from walking around most of the seating areas were occupied so we just sat on the floor where it wasn't too crowded. Two guys dropped 10 cents near me and I asked Dyan why they did that. She said it was a joke. I ended up taking it because why not? The two guys came out of the store they were in and said sorry about what they did while bowing. They must have thought we were Japanese as another "joke". Dyan wanted to throw the 10 cents back at them but I said it would be a waste of money. I also joked that they're pretty cheap for just giving us 10 cents.

Looking For My Tourist/Looking Like A Tourist (03/08/15) 

     Nothing better than a sunny Sunday. The best type of weather to go aboard a tourism bus around Toronto. Did I mention it was two hours long and during those two hours I had to find the courage to single out and interview one of the tourists on that bus? And interview the tour guide standing in front of me during it? The first one I interviewed was the tour guide. Later on, about halfway through the tour at one of the stops, I found my tourist. I'm not going into detail on purpose because my actual story will be on my school's news website as it's a part of the final assignment for my reporting class. Will link it onto my blog when it's finished and published. It took me some time and several meetings with my reporting professor to get myself prepared and actually make the first step and get out there.

Harbourfront Stop

     As I enter Eaton's Centre and got onto the escalator going down to the lower level where the subway line is, at the corner of my eye I see a familiar looking person on the other escalator going up. As soon as I approached the bottom I immediately went on the other escalator to try to catch up with this person to see if I'm actually correct. Turns out I was. And they thought I was a lost tourist. The familiar person I saw and greeted was Angelo. I met him last August when he drove my Winnipeg friend Fatima and I to Toronto and showed us around for a day. And again in December when he was the emcee at Stephanie's debut. I don't have much contacts here in Toronto that I know from Guelph. So seeing someone else who I knew was nice. He's also volunteering for the youth part of city hall and I would like to get involved with those kinds of tasks and events sometime so he will keep me updated on that. 

Photography Crew (03/08/15)

     Sunday evening and I'm exhausted. As I took the subway from Dundas to College station I stayed at College Park for a little while to rest. This past weekend had been an eventful one and I couldn't wait to get back to Lola Linda's to rest but I couldn't just yet. I had to take pictures for a photography class assignment. While I was resting I called my Mom to see how they were doing back at home in Guelph. I messaged Nicole asking what she and Wesley were up to. Turns out they weren't doing anything so I asked if they wanted to meet me, and politely requested if they didn't mind bringing along my DSLR camera. I was grateful that they brought it and I got them both two small iced cappuccino's for their assistance.

Wesley and Nicole on our walk back to Lola Linda's

     Nicole, Wesley and I walked around the College area looking for good shots for my assignment which was based of "Urban Lines and Form". I took several pictures of buildings, shops, roads, and signs. I've done this with them before, where they've helped me look for good locations and got to be in some of the pictures. My photography professor noticed that they were in my previous pictures for an assignment and said that they were a good asset to have.

  Modeling Class? (03/09/15)

     Monday morning and my first class is photography. I figured alright, this should be an easy enough class to get through. My classmate's Brian and Austin had volunteered to be our models so our entire class was taking close portrait shots all at the same time of their faces. This was so we can practice using our fast and slow shutter speeds on our camera's. It was funny because whenever someone sat in the "modeling chair", everyone would immediately jump in to take pictures of them. About three more classmates sat in that chair but for a shorter amount of time.

A quick shot I took of Trevor

     Our professor now said he wanted a model to use for the other chair, which was in front of an actual back drop and that they'll use professional lighting instead of the natural light from the window. While my professor was looking for someone to ask I actually looked away because I wasn't interested. Either way I still got asked to sit in the chair. At first I declined. But then our professor said that we needed someone with long hair, and since there was only two girls in that class, including me, and since I had the longest hair I was basically "voluntold" to (told to volunteer, i.e. not given a choice).

     At least this time it wasn't the entire class taking shots of one person at the same time. I most definitely wouldn't have participated if that was the case. Our photography professor voluntold Trevor to take the shots of me. I was fortunate to have known him from the first semester so it was fine but it was still weird for me. I was never good at posing for yearbook pictures throughout my school years. It was a different shoot from my yearbook picture shoots of course. At first he just took candid portrait shots of me, which let me tell you I'm most certainly not photogenic and especially not in the morning so I wasn't smiling for most of them.

      When I thought we were done I left the chair as soon as I possibly could. Our professor told me to sit back down again and told me to shake my head to get my hair flowing for a good movement shot. I ended up shaking my head back and forth for a couple minutes while Trevor took the shots and the whole class was just sitting and watching in the dark. Nearing the end of the class the professor even took some of the shots that Trevor took and projected it onto a slide for the whole class to see. I was amazed that out of all the shots, the hair shots actually turned out great. Looking back at the experience of taking pictures to being able to on the other side of the camera it was a memorable one. I sent some of the other shots to my friends and family and I posted the hair shots already onto my social media accounts.

I'm "photobombing" Chloe's picture with her tea pot and here's the owl I painted

     I wrote most of this blog post yesterday but I'm further adding, editing, and publishing it today. I spoke to my friend Chloe on the phone last night since she had wanted to catch up. I haven't seen her since her birthday party during our reading week break in February (02/15/15). As a part of the festivities for her birthday party she held it at a pottery place in downtown Guelph. I still haven't seen what my pottery piece looks like glazed and Chloe doesn't want to take a picture of it and send it to me because she wants me to come back to Guelph to see it. 

Until then, Fatima