I’m in Ottawa this week – Canada’s national capital – for an industry conference with a distinctly forward-looking theme. We’re looking at how we’re preparing our people for what comes next, whether it be through succession planning, training, engagement, innovation or other ways to stay ahead of the curve. We have an exciting agenda, fantastic guest speakers lined up and I’m genuinely excited to be a part of it.
Coincidentally, Ottawa is also where I was fortunate to go to university, graduating with a Journalism degree in 1990 (gulp!), back in the day when I was a young, eager young girl with an eye on a job in the news business. I never did work in media, finding quite early that I was better suited for a career in corporate communications, but that’s another story for another day.
On a side note, it’s been so cold this winter that the Rideau Canal, the world’s longest skating rink at a length of almost 8 km, is open tomorrow. I used to love skating almost the full length to classes so I may try and carve out an hour tomorrow to lace up a set of rented blades and see if I can still stay upright!
University is another forward-looking time of life. It’s a time of finding yourself and figuring out who you are, separate from your parents and your family, and striving to goals on your own for perhaps the first time. I absolutely loved my university years and the wonderful people who occupied them. I was sure I’d keep in touch with everyone forever.
Of course, life moved on, and while there are a handful of friends I’ve stayed in touch with regularly, many of us drifted apart. But thanks to FaceBook, LinkedIn and other social media, I’ve managed to reconnect with many others in recent years. Catching up with what they’ve been up to in the intervening years has been fantastic, but those reconnections also led to some sad news this week. One of our classmates passed away recently, far too young, far too soon.
So it’s with mixed emotions that I spend the week excitedly looking forward in a city in which I now find myself sadly looking back…
