Drive in Style: Safe Driving Campaign

I recently received an invitation from Billings Bridge Shopping Centre to take a pledge to drive safe. I immediately jumped at the chance as I am active advocate for safe driving habits. Instead of backseat driving, you'll more often hear my telling the driver to stop texting and to pay attention to the road.

The campaign aims to encourage City of Ottawa drivers to participate less in distracted driving in order to provide for safer roads. Common distractions that occur range from the obvious texting, putting on make-up, eating a snack to searching for a missing item. All of these things can be accomplished either before or after your drive from point A to point B, so why do them midst driving?

I urge you to also take the pledge and support safe driving of both yourself and others on the road today! You can head on over here to take the pledge today, or even drop by the mall to take the pledge in person and grab a quick photo with the Distracted Driving Street Team! What's even better is that for every pledge made, Billings Bridge will make a donation the Ottawa Network for Education/Réseau d'Ottawa pour l'Éducation. If you take the pledge at the mall, you can also snag a chance to win a $1000 Shopping Spree! Online entries are open until May 24th, and in mall entries are being taken May 20th-24th at Centre Court.

Billings Bridge is also holding a contest to design an app that will end distracted driving. If you would like to participate, travel over to here for further details. You could win up to $2500 in prizes! Alternatively, if you'd see the entries, make sure you head over to the mall on May 24th 11AM-3PM for the live event!

If you take the pledge and post a photo on social media, make sure to tag it #driveinstyle #gobillings, so that we can find your post!

In the pursuit of happiness

After an unplanned two month hiatus, I'm back! Completely unintentional, the time away from the internet was spent soul-searching (not the new age kind) and rediscovering who I was. I've always been the type who has their entire life planned out from childhood. When the past four years of my life drastically veered off course, I started to second guess my life choices. I was the typical smarty-pants asian child with glasses and braces, whose parents only allowed exploring future career dreams consisting of being a doctor, lawyer or an accountant. I thought I enjoyed science because I did so well in it that I ended up completing a Biology degree this past winter. It wasn't until my impending graduation combined with the process of applying for the next step (be it med school or a masters degree) that I found that I wasn't excited at the prospect. This was the point where I realized that science wasn't something I was genuinely passionate about even if I found it interesting.

I fully believe in finding a career that suits your needs so that you enjoy each day without waking up dreading to go to work. Some may claim that it might result in a lower salary, but won't you do your best in an environment that you're passionate to do work in? With enough motivation and determination, anyone can push to the top tier of their occupation. Sure it may take more time and a sacrifice of tantalizing pay cheques, but I won't go to sleep stressed every night and wake every morning in the same mood.

Through the duration of my undergrad, I've had the chance to pursue some of my other interests such as; travelling, fashion, blogging and social media. I found that I looked forward to blogging more than applying to a graduate degree. Realizing theses thoughts were an enormous eye opener, and taught me that the path to happiness is not always a straight line. Sometimes you'll go on a detour, but if you always continue to push on, you'll eventually reach your destination.

I'm 22 year old newly graduated university student. I have at least another 40 years of work to put forward. I don't want to waste those 40 years in a trade which I share no passion. I'm young, I have nothing that is currently tying me down and I don't want anything to tie me down. As quickly as our lives move, I have finally realized that there is no reason to rush things right now. So run with me, let's see where life goes.