Hero in Progress

Packing Up the Past: Making Space for My Next Mission

SuperMell stands confidently in a softly lit room filled with half-packed boxes labeled “Past,” “Dreams,” and “Next Mission.” Her black cat, Diana, with golden eyes and a white tuft on her chest, sits on one of the boxes as dawn light streams through a window overlooking the Calgary skyline, symbolizing a hopeful new beginning.

SuperMell is Ready for the Next Chapter

As I prepare for a big move to Calgary, I’ve been thinking a lot about what ‘packing up the past’ really means. It was once put to me by someone wise that I am the hero of my own story—just as everyone is. I tend to view life through that lens. If things are going great, just wait for the next daunting chapter. When life is challenging, turn the page to a new one. That perspective keeps me from getting too lost in the lows and reminds me that life ebbs and flows like the ocean. There will always be ups and downs—it’s how you carry yourself through them that matters most.


Brave Words, Am I Right?!!

Haha! Sometimes I catch myself trying to write something inspirational and find myself wondering in my mind if what I am saying is factual or over exaggerated. Take that intro paragraph, for instance…. I’m not quite sure why I wrote that in particular, but it sounded in my head like a great start to a blog post. I don’t know if it is or isn’t, but it’s made me wonder how exactly am I carrying myself as of late.


Reality Hits Hard, Sometimes…

Some things are going great for me, and some I’m struggling with—so I guess you could be the judge of how well I’m carrying myself these days.

I’ve started a new night-shift job at a Printing Place in Calgary, and I genuinely like it. While it’s not exactly the graphic design world, it feels a lot closer than cleaning offices ever did. It’s creative-adjacent, process-oriented, and oddly satisfying.

But with every good chapter, there’s a subplot I could do without… What I don’t like so much is the daily commutes, especially as the daylight is completely gone or not quite present both late at night when driving to work, and early in the morning when driving home. It’s about a 40-45 minute drive away, and it’s becoming quite the pain in the ass, especially since we just had our first snowfall of the year yesterday after I got home from work. I’m grateful I didn’t have to drive through that on my way home—only some icy fog.

The extreme dislike to the commuting is highly motivating me to start looking at apartments. I’m trying to gear myself towards moving early January. Which is great, but scary as well. Rent prices haven’t fallen and likely won’t anytime soon, so that worries me a little bit. And of course there’s the added stress of actually moving, which is always a headache. But I’m trying to imagine myself a few months from now living closer to work and in a place where I can control the temperature, which has been at least a decade.


Feelings are Weird…

I guess the stress is getting to me as I’m finding it difficult to get my lovely ADHD brain to kick into gear. I avoid housework like the plague, am great at making list of things to do, but not so great at following through with it. The good news is most of my stuff is still packed away in the garage, so I don’t have a super amount of work to do as compared to my last move. But still… Budgeting, figuring out how to make the overnight weekends work for me without making too much noise, etc., etc.,

Somehow I feel like I will be able to get my act into gear once I have all my own stuff and can do what I want on the weekends, but then again, I’ve always struggled with the task of housework, so who knows if I will be more organized. I just feel like I have missed my things a lot, you know?

The stress of moving, starting a new job, commuting, and completing my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training is making my emotions seems quite numb as of late. It turns out, this kind of upheaval is not just ‘normal-chaos’ — according to Healthline, people undergoing relocation often face significant emotional and mental-health shifts.

I’m not sure what it is I am feeling, other than stressed out and living with some uncertainties. For instance, the place I really want to rent I won’t know if they will have anything available for January until at least late November. I do worry about the costs of living and so forth as well. When exactly will that giant sack of money fall from the sky?


Diana’s Take

Diana, as always, just patiently sits by my side as I write this blog post. She probably has no idea how stressed out I am or the feeling of overwhelm that’s wreaking havoc on my ADHD brain. I’m sure she can’t wait to be able to scratch my couch again, or crawl around under my bed as she used to do. She might miss her friend, the neighbourhood kitty we have affectionately referred to as Boots, who prowls around looking for food. She probably won’t miss my parents’ cats though… It’s been awhile and they still don’t really get along.


Final Thought

Seriously, where is that giant sack of money? Has anyone found one yet? If so, how and where did you find it? I’m dying to know! I’m doing my best to save money now, and will be able to handle things until I move, but not so sure about how to afford it when I am living in Calgary again. Time will tell, I suppose.

Transferable Thursday

🧠 Instinctive Strengths: Skills That Keep Showing Up

SuperMell stands confidently in a comic book-style spotlight, surrounded by glowing icons that represent her instinctive strengths: a notepad, puzzle piece, heart, lightning bolt, and spiral. She wears her Nightwing-inspired black suit with a stylized purple “M” and purple glasses. At her feet, Diana the cat—mostly black with a white tuft on her chest—sits calmly, observing. The scene conveys quiet confidence and self-awareness.

🔁 Patterns I Can’t Ignore

I’ve had a lot of jobs—some creative, some practical, some born out of survival. But no matter where I’ve worked, certain skills keep tagging along like loyal sidekicks.

They’re not just things I’ve learned over time. They’re the abilities I instinctively lean on, even when I’m not thinking about it.

In some ways, these skills are more “me” than anything on my resume. And now that I’m reflecting more seriously on career direction, they deserve some credit.


🧩 The Skills That Keep Showing Up

Some of these strengths have followed me from classrooms to cleaning jobs to creative studios:

  • Clear communication – I naturally explain things, connect ideas, and make concepts easier for people to understand.
  • Organized problem-solving – Even in chaos, I find a structure. Systems help me breathe.
  • Empathy – I feel people. I notice tone, energy, tension—and I care.
  • Pattern recognition – I often see the root of a problem before others even know what’s off.
  • Creative thinking – Whether it’s brainstorming or storytelling, I love shaping ideas into something meaningful.

These aren’t just soft skills. They’re real assets. And no matter what I do next, they’ll be with me—because they already are.


🌱 Reframing “Experience”

It’s funny how long I overlooked these things. When you’re instinctively good at something, it’s easy to assume everyone else is, too.

But they’re not. And the more I understand how these strengths play out in different settings, the more I realize how adaptable and valuable they truly are.

It’s not about inflating my ego—it’s about owning my unique toolkit.


🐾 Diana Knows Her Strengths

Diana doesn’t overthink her skills—she just uses them. Whether it’s leaping precisely to a windowsill, comforting me with quiet presence, or turning a paper bag into a fortress of solitude, she knows exactly what she’s good at.

She doesn’t ask for permission to be herself. She just is.


💬 Final Thought

We all have strengths that feel so natural we forget they’re special. But those are often the skills that matter most—because they’ve been with us the longest.

What strengths keep showing up in your story?