Lately I’ve been trying to live by one quote- “I go to seek a great perhaps”.
I believe in the need to push myself to try new things and explore even if everything is a great big maybe. It’s a perhaps, there is no certainty, no clear answers or path.
I loved being a journalist and being able to work as an editor of a newspaper for multiple years just out of university was incredible. I learned a lot about the industry and grew as a professional. However, I was working in a small community near where I grew up and after a few years I was growing restless.
I had moved away from home to the heart of downtown Edmonton when I was just 17 to start university and while it was fantastic during the pandemic to be with family and spend more time with my parents, it was hard readjusting to living at home again.
When you add all these things together and my insatiable wanderlust, I knew I needed to make a change.
So I did something knowing it was a shot in the dark and applied for a Trip Manager position with Contiki Travel. I had gone on a 37-day Contiki in 2018 across Europe and some of my favourite memories are from that trip.
Contiki is a huge, very established and very respected company so I knew there would be thousands of applications. To my surprise shortly after submitting my application I received a step one video interview offer. I then sent in a few videos of myself talking about what would make me great for the job.
A few days later I was invited to an in-person interview. Now there was just two problems with this – one the interview was in just over two weeks’ time and two I would have to fly to London, UK to meet with them in person.
Being a community journalist by no means made me flush with cash, even if I was saving on rent by staying with my parents. So, after stressing a little (ok a lot) I booked a ticket to London.
Now one of the best parts of this was that my spontaneity inspired my mom and last second she decided – we are going to make it a girls trip. So we booked to be in London for a week, budgeting days on either end of interview day. We built it up that if I got the job, amazing, if I didn’t, at least we had a great girl’s week together abroad.
Now I’ll admit my poor mom had to put up with more of a stressed Shaela than an excited one the first day or two until my interview on the Wednesday.
Friday night I got the position – a spot on their European Trip Manager training.
I was to start in March 2023 on a 50-day training trip across 11 countries. Now in this time I was busy trying to organize my life to set me up to leave Canada in March and return in October.
On top of this as a trainee we were expected to complete assignments on each country including full and thorough history write-ups, society breakdowns including economy, geography, tourism, and politics and prepare for some of the sites we would have to talk about on city guides.
I was working 40 hours a week at the newspaper then coming home and putting five plus hours a night into assignment work.
Finally, the time rolled around for me to leave Canada and as excited as I was, I was also terrified. Of course, it didn’t help that upon arrival on London I was pretty jetlagged and my UK visa was all out of sorts. I needed to pick the last part of it up, my barometric resident permit (BRP) at an allocated post office – alas when I showed up it wasn’t there.
At this point I knew I was leaving on the training in less than two days so as I applied for it to be sent to a different address I was stressing. And if you are wondering did it all get figured out? Not yet – this visa will be the source of my headaches forever it seems.
Regardless I had to put it in the back of my mind as it was out of my control for the moment and there was nothing I could do but focus on my next task.
Meeting the other trip manager trainees I was with was so exciting. A lot of us had been talking for months over WhatsApp leading up to training, already providing support and encouragement as we got through the assignments then moving process.
After a big first day in the office with introductions going over what our roles would really be, we took off to Paris. We were on what is called Pre-ETT (whenever I say ETT it means European Training Trip). This was to give us a Contiki experience, so we know what it looks like for the travellers on the other end of things.
It was a very busy time, but little did I know that pace would be leisurely compared to the next time we made it back to Paris.
After Pre-ETT we all boarded the coach and hit the ground running as we travelled to the Contiki Chateau in Beaujolais, France, to commence our classroom week.
I am a writer- through and through, but at the Chateau we learned a whole new style and expectation for writing; especially writing talks and speeches that were meant to be done fast and memorized faster.
We were in the classroom most days from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and working non-stop the majority of the time. There were a lot of late nights and very early mornings.
If we thought Chateau week was chaotic, we were wildly unprepared – or at least I was – for what Paris had in store next….
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as prepared for the pace as I thought I was. Something that I struggled with was conceptualizing and memorizing the deep histories of some European countries under the timeline that was needed. In addition to this I was beginning to run on fumes.
That’s where the story begins to change. In Nice, France I was released (a nice word for fired) from the training trip. I was heartbroken in the day before as I was preparing mentally for the possibility and when I was officially let go I felt a little empty.
I had worked so hard for this and now it was over. On top of that I had invested a lot emotionally and financially into the process, and was prepared that at the end of it at least I would come out with a job and could earn it all back.
That brings me to now.
As I write this I am in Nice, with no real plan of where I will work, live, or make it all happen. I know I want to take advantage of being over here and have a UK visa (mostly) in my hands.
Luckily, I have some amazing friends, one of whom I will go visit in the Netherlands for a few days while I prepare my next steps. After that I hope to go to Scotland, somewhere that has always called to me – explore a little and hopefully find some work.
It’s scary and nothing is certain – but this is just the next step in my adventure.
And I’ll admit there are points every day where I feel heartbroken all over again that the plan didn’t go just right for this summer and that I didn’t end up with Contiki for the season, however all I can do is try to look forward.
I hope that next year armed with all my new knowledge about the process and Europe I can reapply for Contiki, but until then I have to create my own path over here.
I have a blank slate and enough money for dollar store paints, but day by day I’ll start creating something new.
One of the perks to this change of circumstance is that I will have some more time for my own writing- including writing new blogs about my journey and the people I meet along my way.
So keep tuned to boldlines.ca because this season of my life is just kicking off.