My working life has been a series of different careers, some planned, other's not so much.

When I went for my BA, my father told me to study whatever I was interested in, and worry about finding a job later. As a result I did a double major in English literature and philosophy, pretty much unemployable majors, but hey I had fun.

My only early objective for a career was I wanted to be like one of my aunts who was one of the few adult females in my life who had a successful business career. I wanted an expense account, a company car, autonomy, and travel for work, oh and a good salary so that I could afford nice clothes and jewellery. I achieved it - got a job in sales and was quite successful in it, but I was bored, and travelling across Canada 4 times a year started to get old.

So from there I moved into product development thinking it would be more intellectually challenging than sales, and it was but I hated it. But while I was in that job I went back to school at night and earned an MBA in finance. I had intended to major in marketing, but when I took the intro courses I hated marketing and loved finance so I switched to it.

Just as I was graduating from my MBA my company was going through a merger and as a result there were openings in the finance department, so I was able to flip into that without changing companies. Then I realized I needed more accounting knowledge than I had got in the finance specialization, so I went back to school again and got my accounting designation. That was my second major career stint, working in corporate accounting, and I loved it.

Unfortunately I ultimately had to leave the work force due to mental health and addictions struggles and it took me a long time to get back to work. Now I'm working in mental health as a peer support worker and I really enjoy it. It doesn't have the same financial perks that I enjoyed in my prior jobs, but it feels good to be able to be open about my history at work, and knowing I'm helping people.

Not sure what the next chapter will be.