Author: thestampsinmypassport

A professional serving the travel industry for 25 years. Expertise and knowledge in sales, customer care and knowledge of the world. Sharing my knowledge, travel stories and tales from around the world in an engaging way.

Alphabet Gratitude Challenge – Day 3 Letter C

On By thestampsinmypassportIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today is day three which makes it letter C. For those who know me well, you will not be surprised that my gratitude word of the day is COLOUR.  Yes, for my American friends, it is spelled correctly with a U in the word.

I have been a plus sized person pretty much my whole life. When I was much younger, still in school there  really weren’t a lot of clothing options for people ‘like me’. I wore a lot of black and sometimes blue.

Until one day a friend called me a said I had to go down to the Eaton Centre, that Cotton Ginny opened a plus size store for their clothes. That was news to my ears. A store that caters to younger people that carried colours, not just black and blue. I finally had COLOUR in my life.

As I look through my wardrobe and the clothes I currently wear I can say that I don’t have a lot of black clothes. I have friends that pretty much only wear black and I try to avoid it if I can. Colour makes me happy. Especially purple and pink. I was just shopping yesterday and came home with two pink shirts, one purple and one teal. No black even though I did try on a black shirt.

I would be remiss if I left out my current passion for colour, which is colouring. It has been over a year now, and I have five different books, and countless of different markers. I am always in search for new marker colours and my current issue is that there aren’t enough shades of purple in markers. Colouring is meditiation for me. I make time to colour as often as I can. The more intricate the pattern, the better. I know that stresses some people, but it actually makes me feel better. If you haven’t tried it yet, you don’t know what you are missing.

Day 3 – Letter C – Colour

 

Alphabet Gratitude Challenge – Letter B

On By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized3 Comments

When I woke up this morning, the word for  B was going to be a different word, but in light of the passing of Ellie Wiesel today I decided the word today will be BIRTHRIGHT.

What does it mean to have a birthright? Well, my birthright is being Jewish. It is something that I hold very important in my life and it is with me in everything I do.

Just this past week I was at work and shared the photo of young, sweet innocent Hallel Yaffe Ariel who was murdered in her bed, in cold blood, simply because of her birthright. I explained to them that these stories, images and videos are part of my news feed on a daily basis. They had no idea that this happened.

Today I was at lunch with a friend and told her the story of Miki Mark, a Rabbi and father of ten murdered yesterday. His wife in serious condition as well  as some of their children. A father of ten, whom if neither survive become orphans. Again, for being Jewish. For being their  BIRTHRIGHT.

Ellie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust. There are fewer and fewer survivors left. Soon there won’t be any, and then it will be our responsibility. Our BIRTHRIGHT. Our destiny to continue to tell the stories of the survival and strength of the Jewish people at the hand of evil and inhumanity. We have to continue to fight the fights and stand up for what they all survived for, our birthright. The Jewish people will continue to live on.

When you look up the definition of birthright it says this:
Birthright –
A particular right of possession or privilege one has from birth, especially as an eldest child.
A natural or moral right, possessed by everyone.

Day two – Letter B – BIRTHRIGHT

 

The Alphabet Gratitude Challenge – Letter A

On By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

I have been following some friends on Facebook with their Alphabet Gratitude challenge. I think it is a great idea, but I was thinking for me a Facebook status update would be a bit limiting for me to express how I felt about each word and what it means to me.

Today is day one, which would make it letter A for Ability.

Being out of a job last year at this time was very traumatic for me. I had been told many many times that the resume I had was great. It was, if I was looking for a travel agent job. I wasn’t sure if I was looking for that or not, which was also traumatic to try to figure out after 25 years what would work look like outside of travel.

After attending a workshop at The Employment Hub on resume writing and determining I needed a skills and ABILITY based resume it was time to get to work. As I started to completely change the focus of my resume I had to dig down and search for all my abilities that made me the person and professional I am today. It was hard at first, but the more I added to it the easier it became.

Once I had this new ability and skills based resume ready and complete it was time to start sending it out. That was also hard and at times discouraging. If you have had to job search in the ever changing job world you will understand the pain of job searching. Every job posting is an employers dream list candidate. It is so imitating. You start to question your ABILITIES, which is hard since you know how capable you are to do any and all of the jobs you are applying for, but just need a chance.

I applied for a lot of jobs before I was hired for the job I have now. When I say a lot, I do mean a lot, over 50 to be accurate. Each and every resume I sent out showcased my abilities to show that I could do the roll I was applying for. My abilities were not what these potential employers were looking for. It didn’t mean I wasn’t able to do the job, I just didn’t have enough of their ability wish list.

I am grateful for the abilities that I do have and that I make an effort every day to showcase the best of my ability.

Letter A – Ability.