Another change for Suzanne's new year: becoming a (temporary) redhead!

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

Andy Worhol

With the start of a new year, the focus tends to be on how we might make this year better than the last, and in doing so, we also take the start of a new year as an opportunity to create new traditions and new behaviours.  It is essentially the only time of year when it seems our whole society encourages us to make wholesale changes up-front rather than over the course of the year.

A few months ago I felt like I was on the precipice of something “Big” in my life, as though something important (and seemingly pretty scary) was going to happen for me.  So I waited with bated breath to see what was coming; however, Andy Worhol’s quote reminded me that if I wanted something to change then I was going to have to do the work.  For the last few months of 2011 I was waiting for something to push me over that precipice instead of making the leap on my own.  Since then, in some respects, I had others give me a gentle push toward the edge; however in other instances I am happy to say I have leapt up and out on my own.

As some of you have already noted, I am going on UBC’s Leave for Change.  It is hard to believe that I will be in Blantyre, Malawi in just over a month for a stay of three weeks.  Having never been to Africa, and never having worked in such a difficult health climate, I expect that the experience will change me profoundly.  In fact, I hope it does.  I will be working with a program focused on teaching lifeskills to young people living with HIV or AIDS run by the Nacholi Youth Organization.  I have lived a fairly privileged life in a very privileged place in this world a little too long and I feel ready to remove my blinders to see the greater issues and the greater world.  I will be blogging while I am away (on our Healthy UBC Blog under the category “Suzanne’s Stories”), so I hope you will follow my experiences and share your ideas/tips.

My colleagues in Health Promotion Programs also have given me a bit of a push to initiate some changes with how we do our work; you may have already noticed them here on our newsletter and also with our Healthy UBC blog:

• First, you’ll find a little less reading every second month of 2012 in your email inbox.  Our newsletter is moving to a “light version” every second month, highlighting the workshops and programs, but not with accompanying articles. 

• Second, you’ll find all of our content on one website now. We will be blogging throughout the year in the same spot that you find the newsletter articles (which you are on right now) so that you can find our health information easier.

• Third, we are excited to welcome Connie Deschamps, Manager of Health Promotion Programs, to our blog.  She’ll be bringing her love for travel and health to our blog, along with managerial experience, to help us further provide interesting topics for you to read about.

Change can be a major stressor in our lives, or it can be an opportunity for us to become better people, do better things and make a better world. My wish for all of you this year is that the changes you hope for come true, and that the world helps you change even further that you had imagined.  Change makes us reach higher, know more and be more; what more could you wish for?

All my best to you, your colleagues and families in 2012,

Suzanne