After a crazy month of chaos, conferences, and catching COVID-19, I went on a 2 week vacation and visited my family and friends back home in the first 2 weeks of July 🇨🇦

Emceeing at a wedding 🎤

I emceed at my friend’s wedding for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! It was a good opportunity for me to continue working on my public speaking skills (an area that I still consider my weakness) and get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes of wedding planning. For those of you who may not know, I love weddings and I’ve always wanted to be a wedding planner 💕

After watching YouTube videos and researching online, I prepared a script and reviewed it with the bride and groom for their feedback. I also attended the wedding rehearsal so that I could meet the parents and the wedding party, this really helped me overcome my nerves and personalize the script a bit more! My goal was to keep the agenda on track and engage the wedding guests so that the bride and groom could have their beautiful reception without any worries. Fortunately, it went smoothly and I surprisingly received a lot of positive feedback from the wedding guests telling me that I was a natural—I already have my next gig lined up for another wedding in 2023 😉

Summer vacation vibes 😎

While back home, I took advantage of the USD to CAD conversion and got my hair, nails, facial, and massage done 😌 The self-care was much needed, and I enjoyed sleeping in and seeing my beloved friends and family again. I had a lot of fun at the Calgary Stampede and saw 3 concerts during the week. All of these festivities left me completely pooped at the end of each night, and I found myself chilling instead of writing new blog posts or working on side projects.

The need to always be “productive” 😮‍💨

Since moving to the U.S., I found that I rarely got time to myself. From figuring out moving logistics to meeting new friends and attending conferences, I was always up to something… I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I went on vacation. There were many moments when I planned to be productive and felt guilty when I was too tired or simply didn’t feel like it. I tried to remind myself that I was on vacation for goodness sake, but there was always a little voice that told me I could be doing more with my life!

Returning back to my second home 🇺🇸

After returning from Canada, I thought I had caught COVID again. Although I tested negative twice, I still felt awful and super sick… so I was out of commission for another week 🤧 which meant more unproductive time being spent.

Once I recovered, I attended a networking event hosted by Ascend Seattle, which is part of North America’s largest, non-profit Pan-Asian community of business professionals. It was nice to meet new people and see business leaders who looked like me share their journeys of breaking the bamboo ceiling and navigating the workplace as minorities. I look forward to exploring this career topic more on my blog.

Hi, I’m Karen and my blog is all about sharing life and career learnings to help others! Check out Resume Rescue, subscribe to my monthly newsletter, and follow my LinkedIn page for hiring posts shared directly from recruiters and hiring managers. More resources: Career Walking Decks and Paying Off Student Loans.