My 2012 New Year’s Resolutions

Although I often make goals for myself, I have never really made a list of New Year’s Resolutions. I guess once it’s written down, it creates more pressure for you to actually follow through – and makes you feel guilty when you don’t! This year, I want to be as pro-active as possible, so I have been thinking a lot about the most important things I wish to accomplish.

Instead of just calling them resolutions, I prefer to call them goals. There’s a stigma attached to the word resolutions, as if it’s just something we make in the new year hype and never follow through. The word “goal” is more concrete and will hopefully help me stick to them for the entire year.

2012 Goals 

1. Learn how to sew: I have wanted to do this for a while but have always said I don’t have the time or energy to try. I’m starting 2012 off to a good start by signing up for an introductory sewing class at The Sewing Studio in Toronto. It starts next week!

2. Read at least 2 books a week: As a student, I was often reading long essays, papers or textbooks daily. Now that I’m a graduate, it’s easy to work all day and spend your evenings with friends and family or watching TV. One of my goals this year is to use some of that free time to read books (and pursue more freelance writing opportunities). I’m trying to go to the Library at least once a week to take out a few books and especially 7-day rental ones to encourage me to read them in a timely manner.

3. Pitch at least one story a week to a newspaper or magazine: This was something I started at the end of last year and I want to continue doing this year. In particular, I want to have at least one story accepted by a publication I have never written for before.

4. Blog once a week: I initially started blogging as a way to keep track of my writing and create an online portfolio, but it is also a great way to meet interesting people and share your thoughts with the online community.

5. Take another writing course: This summer, I took a news and feature writing course at Concordia University and I want to take another one in Toronto. Unfortunately, they are more than double the price here! The skills you learn are really valuable though, so I’ll probably fork over the cash.

6. Work out at least 3 times a week. This summer, I was really good at working out – it was much easier when I lived a two minute walk to the McGill Gym and was able to go on my way to work. Luckily, I have a treadmill in my house so I have been trying to work out at home at least 3 times a week and attend one fitness class once a week (my favourite is Zumba!).

Those are my top 6 goals so far, and I’m glad that I’m already making progress on half of them. In a few months, I hope to add to the list!

Goodbye Facebook, hello real world!

For the past few months, I’ve contemplated deleting (or deactivating) my Facebook account. I felt like I was spending all my time scrolling through other people’s lives, rather than living my own. Facebook can be notorious for the famous saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” because it’s easy to imagine that everyone else is having more fun, doing more interesting things, and are happier based on their Facebook pictures and statuses.

So after a lot of thinking, I finally did it. Did I feel liberated? Not really. It feels like I had an addiction and I’m just craving for one last minute with it. It is also surprising me how much I used Facebook – not just during my spare time, but to find out about events around town, talk to a long-lost friend halfway around the world, or grab a contact’s email or phone number to catch up.

But besides that inconvenience, it’s also allowing me to focus on my friends that are nearby, who I can see regularly, instead of living vicariously through a friend’s photos. Facebook makes you believe that happy, posed pictures are real life – but they’re not. And so instead of just scrolling through pictures of my friends getting engaged, married, or having kids – while I’m not – and feeling a tad jealous, I can focus my energy on something a bit more positive.

My Financial Bucket List

I had never given my finances much thought until a year ago. I luckily did not have any student loans to pay off and I had a good chunk of savings from working every summer since Grade 11. I never had any set budget or any clue really how much I was spending on my non-fixed expenses like groceries, entertainment, personal care etc.

So about a year ago, I tried tracking my spending and creating some sort of budget. Once I got the iPhone 4, I downloaded a great app called iXpenseit that allows you to track all your expenses and income (and you can even download a PDF of your report)!

Since then, I have become very aware of what I spend during an average month. Most of it was not surprising – transportation and groceries were my main expenses, after rent. But it definitely made me realize how much little things, here and there, add up.

A few days ago, Financial Blogger Krystal Yee posted a contest on her blog. To receive an extra ten entries, you had to write a blog post with your “Financial Bucket List.”

I would love to win the $500 Give Me Back My Five Bucks competition, sponsored by Life Insurance Finder, the life insurance experts, but I also think a financial bucket list is a great way to have clear financial goals.

My Financial Bucket List

1. Save 30% of my income to be able to afford a down-payment on a house by the time I’m 25 (three years).

2. Start an RRSP and an RESP (yes, thinking ahead).

3. Figure out what I’m saving for – what my goals are. Just to save for a rainy day? To save for retirement, a house? Or to save so I can splurge on other things I love, like pretty notebooks, nice clothes and more scrapbooking pieces?

What are your financial goals for the new year?

Can an ethnic-sounding name take you out of the competition for a job?

Last week, I was reading an interesting article on the Globe and Mail’s website about career advice. It revealed that job applicants with an ethnic-sounding name may actually be subconsciously discriminating against you and assuming that you may not have the right language and social skills for the job.

I think it’s quite shocking in this day and age that an ethnic-sounding name might reduce your chances of landing a job. Even if it’s not a conscious decision, now that a study has revealed that recruiters are more likely to pass over a resume with an ethnic-sounding name, employers should make sure that they aren’t making these mistakes and missing out on top talent.

According to the article, “the researchers sent out more than 7,000 hypothetical résumés to hiring managers at companies in three cities that had advertised jobs requiring that applicants have a bachelor’s degree and fluency in English. The positions covered a number of professional fields.” The study found that employers are 40% more likely to choose an applicant with an English sounding name than an ethnic-sounding one.

If employers want to increase diversity in the workplace, then this is a great way to start. Employers should be looking over their hiring ways and examining if they’re prone to these errors – and if they are, start correcting them before missing out on great candidates.

Have you ever felt that an ethnic-sounding name may reduce your chances for landing a job?

Costs of establishing Africentric high schools in Toronto

Less than fifty years after the last racially segregated school in Ontario closed its doors, another one will open – but this time by choice. The Toronto District School Board approved the creation of an Africentric high school, to open once they find space or a school willing to share quarters. It won’t be easy. The project was put on hold last year when parents were furious at the notion.

I’m not sure if this is necessarily a set-back for Black rights but it certainly makes you question why the need to re-introduce segregation after spending so long fighting to end it. Proponents of this idea claim that it helps students feel more self-confident, have a sense of belonging and have even boosted academic grades.

But at what cost? At the steep price of telling these students that it’s easier and better to create your own separate school than learn to integrate with the rest of the population. Maybe that will be too difficult so soon we will be hearing demands for Africentric universities and even workplaces.

I’m not trying to minimize the benefits of these schools but I feel strongly that we should not be reverting back to old ways. How will students learn about different cultures, religions and races when the only people in their schools are all the same culture, religion or race? How do you learn to get along with diverse types of people if you grew up segregated?

Instead of segregation, we should be encouraging schools to promote inclusion when there is a mix of races, religions and cultures in the school. If students can’t attend a non-segregated school without feeling lost and out-of-place, then schools have a bigger responsibility to make students feel a sense of belonging. If Black families want their kids to receive a certain type of education about some aspects of their history and culture, then let’s incorporate those subjects into the classroom.

As Canadians, we often pride ourselves due to our multiculturalism. Let’s not revert back to archaic ways and instead promote inclusiveness, not segregation.