I grew up with a lot of entrepreneurial influence. My mother has owned her own business since I was an infant, and it’s something I like to say is in my blood. I loved that she was able to make her own hours, not have to report to anyone, and live her life the way she wanted. So starting at 12 years old, whenever I was asked “what do you want to be when you grow up,” I always answered with “I want to be my own boss.”

Fast forward to me graduating university in 2017 at 21 years old. After a few co-op work terms, I got a taste of the corporate world. Even though I worked in a startup fresh out of university, I still ended back in a ‘9 to 5’ afterwards, waiting on the clock to tell me when I could head home. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of friends who are extremely happy with this life and I’m happy for them! But me… not so much. I still had the vision of being my own boss. I was just following everyones’ advice to gain some “real world experiences” first, and unfortunately, it was eating away at my mental health.

Two years later, after my 23rd birthday, I had to ask permission to leave work for a couple hours for what I thought was a routine doctors appointment. I was wrong. I learned that the harmless eczema I had been treating since I was a child turned out to be a form of skin cancer the whole time. Most of that conversation was a blur, except for hearing them say “you’re lucky we caught this when we did.”

All that played in my head was “you just learned you have cancer and you still have to go back to work. A job and lifestyle you actually dislike, far from your dream of being your own boss. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring you… What are you waiting for?”