E061 Ciara Fletcher Career Choices @University
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 61
Date: March 28, 2023
Participants: John Webster, Elise Seifert, Cameron Earnshaw and Sheila Webster
Guest: Ciara Fletcher (Interview) and Kay Miller (Move That Body)
Start times and Segments:
[0:00:35] What’s On Your Mind: Elise chats about non-violence, which falls within the Yamas of Yoga. It extends beyond physical violence towards others. It includes treating others without kindness – how we treat others and ourselves.
[0:10:59] Expanding Minds Interview: [Life Choices] We interview Ciara Fletcher in the area of life choices. It’s our third interview with University of Waterloo students. We chat with Ciara Fletcher, who’s at an interesting time in her life. She’s thinking about career options, including pros and cons she sees with different choices. She’s part of a co-op program and keeping an open mind as she experiences different jobs in that program. John explores a backward-looking approach with Ciara. He asks what she hopes her ideal work-balance might look like years from now, and whether that should be a consideration now when she’s considering career options.
[0:27:53] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron noticed a parallel between life and musical concepts relative majors and minors. Music feels upbeat with one and gloomy in the other. Depending on your perspective in life, maybe you have all the right notes but you’re aiming in the wrong key.
[0:31:42] Move That Body: Chef Kay Miller enjoys kayaking. It’s good exercise. It can be peaceful when enjoying nature in quiet. There’s a rush when kayaking in rapids.
[0:36:47] Running Popup: John shares a secret he’s been keeping. One of his goals in writing his book and putting out this podcast is to help younger people avoid mistakes he made and regrets.
[0:39:18] Flipside of the Coin: Sheila heard a story about someone doing a good deed and looking forward to seeing happiness in the person she helped. Instead that person was accusatory and furious. Things often don’t turn out the way we expect.
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Elise – I always thought of violence as aggression, but from learning about the limbs of Yoga – any way where you treat someone without kindness is violence. Even thinking about another person in a negative way can be sending violence towards them, which I didn’t think about.
John – When you send positive thoughts to other people, it can change the way you not only act towards them, but the way you see them acting towards you.
Elise – Our teacher challenged us to consider how we send thoughts to ourselves. I never thought about that before. I never think about how I treat myself mentally. I never thought that I should be sending positive thoughts to myself as well.
Elise – Non-violence towards yourself is such an important part of this limb of Yoga. It’s something that I need to practice more. I think a lot of people would say they need to practice this more.
Ciara – The first factor I’m thinking about when it comes to career options is where the co-op program will take me. I’m a very open person. I think it would be close-minded to say, “I’m doing 5 co-op placements, but I’m not going to work at any of these. I’m going to law school.” If I enter a co-op and love the work environment and my day-to-day tasks, why wouldn’t I explore that further?
Ciara – Our interests can change often. I go back and forth before different scenarios. This time next year I might have a whole different outlook on my future. That’s a big factor. My interests and letting the doors open for co-op.
John – It’s something people can throw in the hopper when thinking about career options. Instead of thinking I want to get a career and then see what happens, why not think about where you want to end up in terms of how much time you want to spend working in a week, and how much time you want to save for family, friends, exercise, etc. Then ask yourself whether the career you’re thinking of matches where you want to end up.
Cameron – The parallel between relative majors and minors to life is that depending on your perspective, maybe you have all the right notes but you’re aiming in the wrong key.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Sheila: Did you not want to then take that wallet, shred it with scissors and take the money?
Guest Information: Ciara Fletcher is a third-year student at the University of Waterloo in the Honours Legal Studies program. Additionally, she has two minors in Philosophy and Sociology, and is part of the co-op stream which has been key in kick-starting her career as a student. Ciara often thinks about her future, career goals, and aspirations which leads to many questions about what the end-result will be of her studies. Ciara uses her current co-op experiences as a tool to see where her interests lie.
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle and Julie