At some point when I was little, someone (a distant relative? a friend of my parents?) decided that I collected cat figurines. Event after event I would be gifted cat figurines. It isn’t that I had anything against cats, I just wasn’t sure what all the cat figurines were about. Eventually I even had a little shelving unit in my bedroom where I displayed my collection – proud but confused – why so many cat figurines in my life?
A couple years later, the cat figurines were replaced by turtles. I vaguely recall commenting that I thought turtles were cool and slowly my collection of dustables converted to turtles. I still have a few kicking around that have made it through the many purges between life chapters. Why people chose to gift me turtles, I may never know.
Lately it’s been unicorns. I swear it started as a joke, because, you know, UNICORNS. They’re a bit ridiculous and more than a bit adorably mythical. They became my signature and I enjoyed working them into presentation decks like little prancing easter eggs – just to see who was paying attention. They’d flash between slides Fight Club style, just because I believe in having fun at work. Unicorns were fun! However, I didn’t understand what happened when one plays with unicorn power – they start showing up in life and now they’re tightly woven into my identity. At the time, unicorns celebrated a renaissance and they were taken on in common language to identify that which is tough to find or believe it exists.
This summer I took a short term contract with a Gastown agency. I found that http://www.openroad.ca was really special – the people and their approach to business. When my contract was up, I didn’t want to leave, and I recently accepted a position there as Director, Project Services.
I’m excited because the role is the right balance of challenge with familiarity. I couldn’t get this involved in a company without being an employee so here I go!
A big thanks to the clients I worked with while freelancing. Thanks to my accountant and my lawyer for teaching me how to start and maintain a corporation. The business is now dormant because, you see, unicorns do exist.
Jessica Evans, PMP
