Reflecting on the Summer

Somehow the summer has flown by and it is already September 1st! Today is my last day at my internship before going back to school to finish off my MBA. The program will be complete in December and I’ll be back and ready to join the workforce full time starting in January. I have a feeling these last few months will be over in a flash!

Over the last few days I’ve been reflecting on what the past four months have meant to me. If I could sum up my thoughts and feelings into one word it would be perfection. This summer was everything I could have hoped for and more.

My internship

After spending 15 years working for very large companies in the oil and gas industry I was excited to do something completely different. I joined a small tech startup here in Vancouver that was founded in November 2016. I was brought on to help with marketing and devising their product strategy. I soon learned that things in a startup move quickly and my role expanded and changed. I loved the people that I worked with, that every day was different, that things were less regimented than I was used to, and that we had an office dog.

I think there is something pretty magical about the early days in a startup where you have the right mix of people. I’m glad I got to be a part of this one.

Getting back to training

If I have one regret from the first 8 months of my MBA program, it was that I didn’t make staying active more of a priority. Coming back is hard, and it is difficult to not play the comparison game of not being able to run the same paces or hold the same watts you used to be able to. Having the time to swim, bike and run this summer helped me feel more like my old self. There are also some beautiful places to train in Vancouver…

Like Kits pool…

Or the climb up Cypress…

Early morning bike rides

Some of my favourite memories this summer are from my early morning rides, from hill repeats at Spanish Banks to loops around Stanley Park as the sun was rising.

The roads were quiet and the views were fantastic. There was the smell of beer being made riding past the Molson Brewery by the Burrard Street bridge. Those moments that you get to experience because you got out the door just a little bit earlier than everyone else.

Celebrating 6 years with Neil

This summer Neil and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We spent an afternoon down on Jericho Beach, right by the Brock House where we got married. Neil prepared a picnic, and we could hear the soft music being played as another couple tied the knot that afternoon on Brock House’s lawn.

There was something very special about being able to celebrate our anniversary in the same place we got married. It feels even more amazing because we actually live here now!

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience over these last four months. How was your summer? What word would you use to describe it?