Journeyman Stories

I keep telling my friends, “Please don’t wake me up, I am dreaming.” It really hasn’t sunk in that I am doing this job: reporting, interviewing NBA players and coaches…. it is so surreal. My first game was last week on Wednesday. I had received all the paperwork I needed from the Toronto Raptors communication department (class people, by the way). I had to be there at least two hours before the game. Needless to say, I was anxious. I have been to the arena countless of times before but just as a fan wanting to watch the games. This was one of the reasons why I had chosen Toronto as the city I wanted to live in. It is the only Canadian town that has an NBA team. My dream was to attend at least a game (it has been over 33 years that I have watching the NBA). Never in my wildest dreams had I thought I would be going there as part of my job. Never! The Media room was packed. Reporters from different outlets were there. I pretended I belonged, but I couldn’t help being in shock...

Many years ago, I heard a businessman say that if you don’t have a dream, be around dreamers. Now, I am going to add to his statement and say that if you don’t have faith, be around people of faith. I met this gentleman over sixteen years ago when I first came to Canada. After a few months, we became roommates. It was very fun evenings among friends hearing and telling funny jokes. We didn’t know what we would become later, but I knew this guy was going somewhere. He was a devoted Christian man, playing music in two different churches. He had a picture in his room with a huge crowd on it and I knew he was meant to impact people’s lives. Little did I know I would be, many years later among the people who would be impacted by his life. We went our separate ways but kept in touch. He later became a Pastor (and I was not surprised at all by that), and I attended his church a few times. In 2013, I was going through one of the toughest moments of my life and I needed help. I d...

What do we do when our plans do not go the way we expected? To tell you the truth, I don't know. Each one of us has a unique way to deal with delays or sometimes heartbreaking shortcomings (I don't want to mention failures). Yesterday, my reaction was to put away the phone (or any other device) for hours. Yes, sometimes it can be too much. A project Paul (my business partner) and I had been working on for years was 98% done. It was a matter of days before we were ready for launch. Then, the person who was helping us to work on it called us to let us know that she couldn't see the data anymore. Long story short, the online provider could not find our data. All was gone! Everything! We are talking about more than two years’ worth of work! As we were "mourning" over our lost, we had to switch gears to work on another project we had been working for weeks. The deadline to submit the application (It was a grant application) was on Monday. We were almost there in...