The skills that pay the bills

I'm a florist. Doesn't that sound like the most wonderful thing to do with one's life after retreating from a high-stress position in the world of film and television, bumming around Toronto as an antiques dealer and sometime-musician and finally settling on a career that would be so beautiful and green and Zen all the time, forever?

How many times can I type HAHAHAHAHA here?

Anyway, I'm a bit of a high-strung individual (which is part of the reason I love those Thoroughbreds so much; me and the TB's have lots in common). I am, as they say, "driven". Sometimes our greatest strengths are also our weakest points and I'm pretty sure that being this way is a double-edged sword in my life. There's nothing half-assed about anything I do and I always want to know what that next level is in any endeavour I undertake so I can get there as quickly as possible. It's just what I do, and probably also who I am.

So, I became a florist to escape all that. Insert more HAHAHA's here. Because, wherever you go, there you are, as they say. I got a job at one of the best and busiest flower shops in Vancouver before I went to do my certificate in floristry. I worked in the shop the whole way through school, graduated, kept working, realized that I needed to move more quickly in terms of goals and finances, took a job with a wholesale florist as a salesperson and then powered my way to where I wanted to be in less than two years after graduation.

I love what I do and I'm passionately committed to my industry. I'm as involved as I can possibly be with the development of educational programs in floristry and the elevation of our trade to its highest potential in BC and hopefully all of Canada. As flighty and ridiculous as I may come across, I have a very serious side and I am certainly very serious about my trade. My duty is to improve whatever I touch and to allow it to improve me too.

Funny though, how all this seriousness about a low-paying, agriculturally-oriented, hard-slogging yet undeniably beauty-oriented career world I inhabit sort of mirrors what I think I'd really like to be doing...

You can see me at work here:

http://www.ubloom.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=152&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_content=626721694&utm_campaign=April+13%2c+2009+Weekly+Reminder+_+hyida&utm_term=Watch+the+webisode