Renjie Butalid

After two amazing years working for Social Innovation Generation at the University of Waterloo (SiG@Waterloo), my contract has come to an end and I am ready to begin the next chapter of my life. I chose not to renew my contract for Communications Coordinator at SiG@Waterloo. Instead, I have decided to take the next two months off in order to embark on an adventure that I know will drastically change a number of aspects of my life by the time September rolls around. This includes what I choose to work on next in my professional career, and more importantly, where I choose to live and call ‘home’ for the time being.

Of course, I will forever be grateful to Frances Westley, Cheryl Rose and the entire team at SiG@Waterloo and the SiG national collaborative across Canada, for having had the opportunity to work with a great group of people and to further my own understanding of the social innovation process and the possibilities that lie therein.

As of Monday, July 5, I will be joining the ranks of people without a “full-time job”. However, for a great number of reasons which include being in the very fortunate position of not needing another job right away in order to pay the bills, as well as adopting the very powerful mindset of considering myself a “free agent” rather than “unemployed” for the next little while, I am perfectly ok with this arrangement.

Richard Florida recently wrote in the New York Times, that people used to follow the jobs; they would move to where their company sent them. However, as Florida has observed, people today often pick a place to live first and then look for work. It may be where we live, rather than who is employing us at the moment, that attaches us to our work and careers.

I’ve been asked by many people what my plans are, moving forward beyond SiG@Waterloo and living in Kitchener-Waterloo itself, especially by my parents who I know are always looking out for me and have the best of intentions in mind. To be honest, I have no clue what I will be doing or even where I will be living (a nod to Richard Florida) come September, all I know is that my interest lies deeply in this emerging field of social innovation, especially with social entrepreneurship and its potential for transformative change in society. I know for a fact that there are many opportunities out there, my goal now is to find the right one.

I have a shortlist of cities in mind which include Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York City, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Hong Kong. I will certainly be exploring opportunities in each of these cities in August through to September, by reaching out to friends and colleagues within my network. After thinking it through over the next couple of weeks, I may even decide to visit one of these cities in September for an extended period of time just to see where things go.

For the time being, all roads lead to the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Cranbrook, BC where my parents currently reside, in order to spend some much needed down time reflecting on where my life has been these past few years. I intend on doing a lot more reading and writing, especially on this blog, exploring developments in the social finance and impact investing landscape, both in Canada and abroad, as well as the use of mobile technology for the alleviation of poverty in developing countries - two areas in the social innovation landscape that have piqued my interest in recent years.

I always strive to push myself out of my comfort zone. This journey that I am about to embark on over the next eight weeks, will push me so far out of my comfort zone that all I can do six months from now is sit back and laugh to myself on how things have turned out. Wish me luck.