Introducing Vogue Mortgages

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My dad made the decision for our family to immigrate from a small town in Tanzania to Canada in 2001. His decision involved moving away from his extended family, his friends, and leaving behind his established business, all for the purpose of pursuing a better life for my brother and I. Arriving in Canada, both my parents worked extremely hard (and still do!) to start a new life and provide for our family. It’s your typical immigrant story.

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Now, that’s a lot of weight on our shoulders. My brother and I felt this underlying responsibility to live up to our parent’s expectations, primarily based on the sacrifice they made for us. They gave it all up for us to have a better life and so there was no room for error. That responsibility also led me to start planning out the rest of my life, beginning in high school.

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For context, I’ve been a planner my entire life. For something as simple as an outfit I chose to wear for work the next day, I was programmed to plan. I mapped out major milestones in life, including target ages I wanted to achieve them – things like graduating university, getting my first job, getting married, having kids, and so on and so forth.

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I also had a separate plan for my professional life that included graduating with an HR Business Degree (shoutout to @Ryerson) and achieving different titles and roles at different stages in life. With all this planning, nothing prepared me for the ups and downs and the myriad of emotions throughout my life.

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We had our first child (baby girl!) a few years ago and I’ll admit – maternity leave was awesome! But it also revealed something about myself; I didn’t want to return to my “job” because I genuinely experienced mom-guilt. I felt like I was failing my daughter by not making myself available to her as much as I’d like. The role I was going back to was also extremely demanding – My husband would do drop off meaning I’d only see my daughter when I got home from work, giving me a mere 3 hours with her every day.

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I decided to switch roles (job-hopping as we millennials do!) for a new challenge and for something with a better “balance”. I loved it at first, but the inevitable voice in my head asking me if this was what I really wanted was still there. My husband and I got pregnant again (also planned!) and here I was, on maternity leave, yet again. It led me to have numerous conversations with people in similar situations, stuck in unfulfilling careers. We all shared the same sentiment – we were comfortable and fearful of uncertainty. What if taking the leap to a new career didn’t work out?

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I took the time to reflect. What did I enjoy, what did I love, what was I truly passionate about?
I genuinely enjoy helping people, I love fashion and finance (weird combination…I know), and I was truly passionate about real estate and home design.

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That led me to obtaining my mortgage license. I’m now a licensed mortgage agent in Ontario. I’m looking forward to sharing my journey and getting to know each and every one of you.

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This is new.

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This is scary.

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There’s always going to be hiccups along the way – but it’s all part of the process. Here’s to a new chapter!

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