I was born and raised in Germany, where I also finished my education.
After 13 years in school and an apprenticeship at an accountant’s office for three years, I finally went to University for five years.
Just after finishing my diploma in management economics, I met my now husband, Roy, who was in Germany to re-erect a log house for friends of mine.
It was then when I put my working career on hold and had to figure out if I really wanted to immigrate to a different country.
I wanted, and in 2001, we got married, and in the spring of 2002, I finally immigrated to Canada.
My first years here I spent adjusting to country and language. Although I never liked learning languages in school (and failing a few exams), my nine years of English during school and the fact that Roy doesn’t speak any German helped me quickly get over the language barrier and I enjoyed my new life as a homemaker.
In 2005, our first daughter was born, followed by our second daughter in 2008. With that came lots of joy in my life and lots of work, of course.
In the beginning of 2005, my husband also had a change in career and he has been self-employed ever since. This made him happier and left me with the important task of keeping the books for him. Late in 2008, I decided that spreadsheets don’t work for us anymore and new software was needed, so I got Simply Accounting. But as my previous work experience has been quite a while ago in a different country, it wasn’t easy for me to work with it.
In January 2009, I met Diana Badke at the drop-in lunch at the Cariboo Family Enrichment Centre. She invited me to come to group tutoring and work through the course of Simply Accounting at my own pace.
At group tutoring, child minding is provided, so it gave me the peace and quiet (and focus) to learn. It’s the one thing I cannot find at home, as my children are always around, and quiet time and space is nonexistent.
Quickly, I started enjoying my weekly session of learning and occupying my brain with something different than mothering, while my children enjoy their playtime. In addition to the benefit of learning, I meet with other mothers, see their goals and get more encouraged to think and plan my career for the time my children are a little bit older.
So after finally finishing Simply Accounting, I shifted my focus on Microsoft Office. I also hope to do a couple other courses when I find some more time, but for now that has to wait as being a mother is still my very important first “job.” But just being able to do a little bit of learning for my own good helps me a lot to deal with life.
Last fall, I also participated in a tutoring training to become an ESL-tutor with the
hope that I can be of help to other immigrants who come here and have to face the challenge of adjusting to a new country and a new
language.
