As I sit here in between clients I think back over the last year and I cannot believe where I have come. My husband and I have two boys who are now grown so I thought that it would be fun for me to find a job. The last job I had was over thirty years ago, when I worked in a hospital as a care aide. But shortly after I had started working I was in a motor vehicle accident, I had such injuries that I was forced to stop working. Before I had a chance to go back to work I fell in love with the man of my dreams and we decided that I would be a stay at home mom. So after raising our two boys, I decided to get a job. When I first started looking I was not sure what to look for. At that time I was looking for a cashier job not sure how I would learn how to add. Our family were at a hockey game last fall when a piece of paper fell from one of the remote-controlled balloons. I looked at it and it was an advertisement for Sprott Shaw College. It said that if I took this paper in then I would not have to pay the registration fee. I was looking to see what courses they had if I would be interested in any of them. There was this course for becoming a Health Care Aide. So throughout the hockey game, I would look at the paper then watch the game, then I would look at the paper again and then the game. This went on for the whole game, so after I asked my husband Rick and he told me to go for it. It was hard for me to imagine going back to school at my age.
I had someone tell me that if I believed in something and believed that it would come true then it will. During my orientation I was asked to write on the board first was a goal that I wanted to reach. Mine was to graduate with honours ( that is having an average of 90% or higher for the whole course). I did with a 93% average. For the very first time in my life, I was able to walk across the stage during my graduation.
My goal, in the end, was to work in home health care where I go into people’s home to give them care. Again I took my friends advice and I would say that the prefect job was out there and to believe that I would find it. After taking a week off after grad to relax I started looking. I started looking on a Thursday morning, that afternoon I had a telephone interview, an one on one the next day and was hired the next Monday. Wow, my dream job in only three days. Thanks To all who made this happen.
Dorothy H. Health Care Assistant Program Maple Ridge Campus
