S3: Episode 7: Abby Acham, Accounting Student & Cannabis/Mental health Advocate

"Do what you love".  

Although cliché, it is easier to thrive when you are passionate about what you are doing. It changes how you look at your world. Abby has always loved accounting and although her journey and career path has not been straight forward, she has found her way back to the accounting discipline. 

On this week’s episode of Career Resilience with Jann Danyluk, Abby Acham and Jann discuss Abby’s impressive career path so far. A defining moment in high school set Abby apart when she opted out of the gifted program and was sent to her ancestral home, Antigua. This shift in environment allowed her the opportunity to reflect and grow both personally and in her career. 
Abby is also a cannabis and mental health advocate and an integral part of the organization, Afro Canada Budsistas. Their mandate is to normalize the cannabis plant for black women. The experiences black people have with cannabis, pre- and post-legalization, is not the same as other ethnicities. 
Abby’s path remains challenging, but she continues to prove her resiliency as she adapts to her changing circumstances. 

#blackexperience #accounting #careerresilience #fordkeasthumanresources 

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Jann Danyluk, Career Resilience.

Transcript

| 00:12 | I'm so excited to welcome you to season three of career resilience. My name is Jann Danyluk. I'm a senior human resources consultant at Ford Keast, a progressive accounting firm in London, Ontario, Canada.

 | 00:26 | Each week I get to talk with people about their career path and their career journey and maybe we can all learn from each other how to be a little bit more resilient in the challenging world of work. Please check out my website career dash resilience dot com where you'll find season one and season two and now season three. Welcome. Love what you do and do what you love. The best career advice I've received follow the fun.

 | 00:54 | Those opportunities will just organically and present themselves. You know, establish those connections and maintain those connections. Acceptance just means accepting what is. I don't think we should just put ourselves in a box. At the end of the day, it was always me that I said, I'm not doing good enough right now. I want it to always be you know movie night on Friday night. And. My guest today is Abby Achem.

 | 01:22 | Abby has been born and raised in London, Ontario, Canada, but spent some time in Antigua, which I'm interested to hear about. And although she has had a variety of experiences and work and so on, she's always been attracted to accounting and numbers. And as well as that, on the other side, Abby has a passion for cannabis and for mental health advocacy. So in other words, we have a lot to chat about today. So Abby, welcome to career resilience.

 | 01:53 | Thank you for having me. It's an absolute pleasure to be a part of the podcast. Great. So let's talk at first just to warm up. If you could give me an idea of an interesting fact about you or something random about you. Well, I actually, in a previous point in my life, I produced music. I was a singer in a rapper, and also a battle rapper. So that was a fun experience in my life at one point.

 | 02:24 | Wow. How long did you do that? I started out doing music, an initially in public school. And it followed me, and then I started getting into rapping, probably around age 12, and I'm 39 current. Okay. Well, that was pretty brave of you. Usually at age 12 were hiding. Well, it started out as a project, actually, for school.

 | 02:53 | We had to do a unique final project and mine was to write a song and record it. Okay. I think that gives us a little bit of an insight into you. Okay. You have held a variety of jobs in your career, as you've moved along. And I love that. I love the idea of trying different things and learning about those things and learning about ourselves at the same time.

 | 03:22 | So tell us about some of the jobs that you held. Well, I initially started out a few years back in the insurance industry. And I started out as a cleaning assistant and worked my way up to an accident benefit to just a role where I was handling claims for people who were injured in car accidents and managing their treatment based on their funding bucket that their policy provided.

 | 03:52 | Yeah. So handling planes, it was a very challenging role, but something that I did enjoy as well. And then some other careers opportunities that I've had. I've actually been technical support agent and a call center. I've been a hairstylist. I went to hairdressing school in 2003. And then worked in salons for some time after that.

 | 04:22 | So I've had a variety of different roles in my life. Yeah, you have. And very different from each other. Yes. Exactly what you mentioned though. It was about trying out what would fit for me and what would work for me and what showed me things about myself. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So of those jobs, somewhere in there accounting came into your mind.

 | 04:52 | So why is that and how did that happen? Well, actually, accounting was kind of my first love if you will. I started out in high school, taking courses like accounting. I did an accounting co-op with Ernst and young in high school as well. And then I applied to the university of Waterloo fresh out of high school. But I didn't get into the accounting program.

 | 05:23 | And I was sad about that, but I went to Waterloo. I started out at Waterloo anyway. And tried to mirror my course load as much as of the painting as possible. So that I could eventually transition into the accounting program. That isn't what happened in my life, but that was the plan at the time. So what happened? I actually was diagnosed with a disability.

 | 05:54 | And I took a year off to go to hairdressing school. And then worked in the hairdressing industry for some time after that. I returned to Waterloo. Did a second year, and then again spent some time in the hairdressing industry. And then went down the curvy path that my life took after that. Okay. So perseverance might be one of your characteristics than Abby.

 | 06:25 | Absolutely. Because I now have, in my life, come back to accounting. It's come full circle for me, and I'm currently at band shock college pursuing my bachelors of commerce in accounting. And when will you graduate from that program? Well, that's sort of an interesting question because I was intended to graduate next year. However, I've recently been dealing with some health issues. I was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

 | 06:56 | And so I've had to sort of apply resilience to my school career and make some tough choices as far as how I'm proceeding with my degree. So I'm taking, I have to scale back my course load for this past semester. And then I also had to I'm withdrawing from school for next semester to take some time off of both of my house.

 | 07:27 | So let's talk about that a little bit. Congestive heart failure means what? It means what happened to you and how did you know something was happening? Well, it means that my heart isn't functioning at the level that it should be. And so it doesn't pump off fluid out of my body in the same way that it's supposed to.

 | 07:54 | And so what happens is things like my feet swell up with fluid that's in my body and I have to take medication a water pill that helps to drain off fluid out of my body. How I found out I was actually at the friend's house and I bonded to visit her for the weekend and I just wasn't feeling myself the whole weekend. I just didn't feel right.

 | 08:24 | She noticed I felt off. I didn't sleep well. And then the morning Monday morning when I was planning to come back to London, my feet were swollen really huge. And she was like, I think that should take you to the hospital. And she took me to the hospital in Markham and I was admitted for a week.

 | 08:50 | And they used that time to direst off, which means to drain off some of the fluid off my body. And that's when I got the diagnosis. Initially. So did you want to go to the hospital? Were you at the stage where you said, yeah, get me to the hospital? Initially, I was like, I'm going to go back to London. I'm going to take a bus back to London. It'll be fine. I'll go to the hospital when I get there.

 | 09:18 | And she was like, I don't think that's a good idea. And I was like, okay, you know what? And how I was feeling to I was experiencing shortness of breath. And so she was really concerned about that as well. And I was she was like, no, I think we should go to the hospital now. And I was like, okay, you're right. A much an older and wiser friend. So I appreciate her for that.

 | 09:47 | I find it very interesting, though, that it was your older and wiser, let's say, younger and whatever. But it wasn't you that said, I need to get to a hospital. As a matter of fact, what you were saying is, no, I think I'll take a bus home. And I wonder what it is about us, because I've heard this time and again, where we say, no, no. And I don't know if that's denial, Abby, or if it's, I just want to go home or what it is.

 | 10:17 | I think for me, it's a bit of. I don't want to say fear, but I would say more so a bit of denial and a bit of nothing's really wrong with me. Yeah. You know, and struggling with that idea that something wrong with you and that you need to be taken care of.

 | 10:46 | I struggle with that sometimes. It's hard for me to really acknowledge when something's wrong with myself, health wise, even though I tend to have fairly good self awareness in general. Sometimes it's that I don't want to be a burden to other people. I don't want to be a burden to somebody else. I don't want somebody else to have to take care of me, per se.

 | 11:16 | Yep. I have a friend who had a health problem, and it was pretty severe. And we were talking about it after. And one of the things that she said was I really did not want to have an ambulance in my driveway. And we talked about what that means because that's just so wrong headed thinking, and she knows that. And she's a very intelligent person.

 | 11:44 | But it's just interesting how it sometimes takes another person to push us, which is why it's so helpful when you have a friend like you have or an advocate to sort of help you along. In recognizing, yeah, you need an intervention. And it's okay. Let's make that happen. Yeah. Very interesting. And I think I think we touched on something really important that it's okay.

 | 12:12 | Sometimes we don't acknowledge that it's okay to need help. It's okay to get assistance. It's okay to put ourselves first. And that's something I think is part of the resilience piece that your podcast focuses on, but it also is it can be a negative sort of have a negative connotation at times as well. Yeah, maybe that's it.

 | 12:42 | And also, we're used to being strong, and we're used to having to be strong. And showing that vulnerability, especially in an area that we just don't know, because most of us don't know about potential physical repercussions and so on. So I think it's really interesting that that sort of is a natural human reaction that we need to be aware of. And take care of ourselves.

 | 13:09 | So let's backtrack because I wanted to talk about you living in Antigua for a while. And how you happen to move to Antigua and how you could possibly bring yourself to leave a place that's so beautiful. How I can live there, I was it's actually kind of a one of those funny teenage life stories. I was getting into trouble. I was in high school, and I was doing things that my parents didn't want me to do.

 | 13:41 | And part of that was because I was identified as a gifted student. And I was put into a gifted program from grade 7 until grade 9. And I stopped wanting to be singled out for my quote unquote giftedness. I wanted to just be a normal kid. I wanted to do normal kid things.

 | 14:08 | And so I purposely failed out of the gifted program for grade ten. And my parents were quite upset about that. They felt like the gifted program would help pave the way for my university education. And so they were quite frustrated with me at the time. And again, things that I was doing. And so it was kind of punishment, actually.

 | 14:39 | I was sent to live with an aunt. I know. Sent me sent to a curvy and island with 365 beaches as punishment. But yeah, I was sent to live with an aunt and I went to an all girls school. And I experienced my first and only hurricane.

 | 15:04 | At the time, which was interesting because in comparison to our climate here, a hurricane was very new to me. And I thought the ceiling was coming off the whole time. I wonder what it is. Because you're not the only gifted person I've heard of deliberately flunking out of that box. That plant and what do you think it is, Abby?

 | 15:32 | Is it a desire to conform to others? I think part of that is wanting to be normal, wanting to be like everyone else. Wanting to just blend in, but I think also too, how do I really know myself at that age?

 | 16:01 | I think I would have I would have been more inclined to stick it out. It was teenage years. And those are tumultuous, regardless of who you are. So. Different challenges for me to experience things and to try to fit in and I did a lot of I tried a lot of different things back to when we were speaking about my career and trying different things to see what fit.

 | 16:42 | I was involved in different activities in school. I performed at musically. I played I played football on the boys team in high school because I love football and I wanted to participate and I was like, no, I don't care that I'm a girl. I'm going to do this.
 | 17:03 | And so I feel like as far as being gifted and wanting to send some maintain a sense of normalcy in that teenage realm you know, blend in, make friends, just be normal, be quote unquote normal.

 | 17:31 | And just have experiences like everybody else. I think that was part of it. I have to say, fitting in, there's quite a dichotomy there of going on the boys football team. That is not fitting in. It's not. It's not. But I think two, I also am very much of the mind of doing what I want.

 | 17:59 | And doing what I want to obtain the best possible experience. That I can have. Okay. Okay. So along with perseverance, I'm adding stubbornness to you. Absolutely. Zodiac wise, I'm a Leo. Known for their stubbornness. So, yeah, definitely. I stubborn to the lid.

 | 18:27 | When you came back from Antigua, were you a changed person somehow? Oh, yeah. That experience changed me a lot. Not only with getting to see family that I hadn't seen in years and getting to spend more quality time with them. But just the experience of the island itself changed me. I had friends that sent me letters and my yearbook, like one of my friends took my yearbook around and got it signed while I was in Antigua.

 | 19:03 | So I got all those messages from friends and back to keep those and that I think contributed to me feeling that fit in feeling. So in a sense, I found in that I was trying to fit even after the fact of being an Antigua and experiencing that time.

 | 19:32 | I wanted to move on to talking about cannabis and you say about yourself that you have a passion for cannabis. You developed a passion for cannabis and mental health advocacy. So I wasn't sure are you tying those two together or are those two separate things that you want to talk about? We can tie them together.

 | 20:00 | There's a couple sort of ways that we can kind of approach this. I started using cannabis at a young age. I was exposed to it in high school and started using it. More recreationally. And then I got into understanding more about how to use it medicinally and for therapeutic use.

 | 20:27 | And that also went a long way in helping with my mental health. Personally, and in my own experience. But also, the same friend that I mentioned that took me to the hospital. She's the CEO and cofounder of an organization called Afro Canada bud sister. And I do some work with this organization.

 | 20:57 | One of the things that I'm very proud of that we did was we partnered with the mental health commission of Canada to produce a panel and education panel surrounding a report that was done, the report basically talked about mental health and cannabis in the black community. And it was informed by three virtual dialogs, one of which I was a part of.

 | 21:29 | I guess you could say as a client or as a patient, and then through Africa Canada bud sisters, I helped to produce an educational panel that discussed the report in detail. We had some really great people on the panel from khadija Thornhill, the same friend that I had mentioned.

 | 21:57 | To George smitherman, it was moderated by doctor let me see if I remember his name. Doctor of. Who is very involved in the cannabis and the movement as well as cannabis research. And he's just, he moderated the three virtual dialogs as well.

 | 22:23 | And so working with them was amazing to see how many other people had similar experiences to mine. As far as experience exposed to cannabis for therapeutic use, how it helps their mental health, how some of the obstacles that they encountered that we all encountered in trying to access cannabis for mental health reasons.

 | 22:53 | So it's been a very interesting journey that I've been on with cannabis and mental health in general. Abby, that's pretty niche, isn't it? Because it's brought down to Afro Canadians. And are you saying or thinking or is the organization see it as different from other ethnicities experience with cannabis?

 | 23:24 | It is pretty niche. In the sense that when legalization occurred in Canada, people were not looking for black people as the consumer. They were not focused on marketing to black people. They were not especially black women.

 | 23:44 | And black women typically found their sourcing of cannabis from their boyfriends or their husbands or their friends or you know the dealer down the street, it wasn't when the legal framework came along, that transitioned to, hey, let's engage black women black men, it wasn't there.

 | 24:15 | That dialog wasn't there. And so that's one of the reasons why Africa Canada bud sisters and the work they do is so important because it normalizes the cannabis experience for black women. Specifically.

 | 24:32 | And also one of the things I mentioned was cannabis Amnesty, typically in the black community before legalization, they were one of the most targeted community for being charged, being searched, being convicted of cannabis related crimes.

 | 25:00 | And so that experience. It made the black sorry. The black experience with cannabis was made out to be very different than let's say a middle aged white person who walks into a dispensary and gets medicine to take home.

 | 25:29 | They're too experiences are going to be the same. Black people will get searched more black people will get charged more. It was just the way that things were being handled at the time. Does that make you angry? Does that make you disappoint? What does that make people feel in your community?

 | 25:56 | There is a sense of anger there because it's like why us, why are we being targeted and not to say we're the only people because the indigenous community faces it as well. But it's like it does make you angry and it does make you frustrated that your experience has to be trivialized and you have to work harder to bring attention to it for other people to understand.

 | 26:28 | Right. Yeah. For other people to understand. Yeah. Let me just say it wouldn't even have occurred to me. There was something to understand. So that's why it's great to have this conversation because this is where I always struggle. I don't understand why there has to be understanding. You like cannabis, somebody else likes cannabis.

 | 26:57 | It's just it should be the same experience. But of course, what you're saying makes sense. Yeah. And as you said, it's part of the reason why these conversations are important to have because it brings light to the situation that may not normally receive light, and that light can lead to change. Yeah.

 | 27:26 | So tell me about bud sisters in terms of how it started and how it's grown. Well, initially, it was started by tanisha and another woman Natalie, who basically were smoking cannabis together in their garage and. Kind of said to each other, well, if there's the two of us here, and we both smoke, there must be more of us as black women who consume cannabis.

 | 28:00 | So let's go find them. And so they started a Facebook group initially that started out slowly. I joined the beef book group because I was like, yes, I found my sisters. And so there's a community of us. And this was, I believe they started it right before the pandemic hit.

 | 28:27 | So in that regard, cannabis was seen as an essential service. So their access was there during the pandemic. And they started a mental health check in that happens on Wednesdays, even now, it's been long-standing since March of 2020. The mental health check in aspect allows black women to come together, consume their cannabis.

 | 29:01 | However, they choose and sort of go through their wins and losses for the week in a safe space. And that community has grown to over 800 members now. We produce events, we did the educational panel as I mentioned before. There's a variety of different things that we're doing to normalize cannabis use for black women.

 | 29:36 | How do 800 people come together and chat? That's a lot of people. Well, to be honest with you, there's quite a few lurkers in the group. And there are people because of the stigma that surrounds cannabis use. Some of them are maybe teachers or lawyers and even though cannabis is legal now.

 | 30:00 | They're still afraid to own it in that sense because of how they may be perceived at their job or how they may be perceived by their family. So there's still that stigma that we're working to break down. So literally, how has cannabis helped you in your life to be more resilient?

 | 30:24 | Cannabis, for me, with resilience in other ways in my life, back when I was performing, I would use cannabis to kind of take the edge off or get rid of my nerves prior to performing. And that would help with just being a person that exudes resilience in that moment.

 | 30:55 | As well, I would say there are things there are times in my life where I couldn't do things without consuming cannabis first. And it's not, I wouldn't say it was from an addictive perspective. I would say it was more from a supportive perspective. Where the cannabis would support me in whatever it is I was doing.

 | 31:20 | So for example, I would wake up in the morning and consume some cannabis and go to work and have a great day. It would help with my focus. It would help with my clarity. It would help with some of the other medical conditions that I have. I have arthritis. So we would assist with that and dealing with my pain. If you could leave us with one thought about cannabis, what would that be?

 | 31:49 | All cannabis use is therapeutic use. There's a plant that is has so much benefit, it can be manipulated in so many different ways and consumed in so many different ways.

 | 32:08 | And I think we need to as people stop with the wacky tobacco sort of stigma and open up our minds to how this plant can be helpful for the average person because there's a lot of ways that cannabis and even psilocybin mushrooms that can be absolutely beneficial in therapeutic from a medical perspective.

 | 32:40 | And I think there needs to be more of that and more exploration into that usage. Excellent. Okay. Let us move on to my three questions. And my first is, what has been the best career advice you have received? Do what you love, and I know it's kind of cliche, but it's absolutely true.

 | 33:11 | If you do what you love for your career, it doesn't become work. It becomes, I'm going to have fun for 8 hours, or I'm going to you know enjoy what I do for 8 hours or for however long you're shifted. But it changes how you look at your work. And it doesn't become work anymore. At least that's been my experience.

 | 33:40 | But yeah, that's definitely the best career advice I've had is do what you love. And enjoy it and make sure you. It's easier to thrive at something you love. Than it is to work away at a career that you're not actually passionate about. Yeah. And you said it changes how you look at work at your work. I think therefore it changes how you look at your world.

 | 34:12 | Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Because it's such a big part of life. And it makes me sad sometimes when people, the only goal is retirement. And you think, what do you think is going to happen when you get there that is suddenly going to be amazing when today is an amazing? So I like that a lot. Okay. So that idea of the destination versus the journey.

 | 34:44 | You know what I mean? It working and working as part of our journey in life. And so are you going to focus solely on the destination of retirement and not care about what the experiences are that you have along the way? I think that makes for a boring life. Or an unfulfilled life. Yeah. It makes for a life not lived in a way. Doesn't it? Yeah.

 | 35:15 | Yeah. Okay. Second, is there a book or a podcast or something that you streamed? Anything that comes to mind that influenced influenced you? So during my time in Antigua, I found a book at my cousin's house called the celestine prophecy by James Redfield. And this book was I initially thought it was based on a true story, but it was a fictional work.

 | 35:48 | But it opened my eyes in a lot of ways to a sort of new age way of thinking. It falls into the realm of the secret, and the power of now, those kind of books. So it was very enlightening for me at that time in my life. And that when you asked me if I came back from Antigua, changed person, that book had an impact on me as well.

 | 36:18 | And finally, what are you most proud about related to your career? Well, I would say I'm most proud of getting back to accounting. After starting at 18, and you know going to Waterloo and facing the challenges that I did and going down a path that led me away from accounting, I'm really most proud that I was able to come full circle, get back to it, and build not only the student career that I have for me.

 | 36:54 | But the relationships that I've been able to build within the accounting industry as well. That's neat. Okay. Those are my questions for you. Is there anything you'd like to add before we wrap up? I'd just like to say that you know resilience is something that I think a lot of people don't think they have. And you never know what you have until you need to have it.

 | 37:26 | You know, and so I think resilience is a lot more common, especially in our careers than a lot of us like to think. But we do it. We add it in there. We sprinkle it on top. And it does what it means to do for our careers and our journeys in life. I like that too. I think that's so true. One of the things that I always say is, what do you do when you can't cope?

 | 37:55 | You cope. Yeah. You find a way. You go through the door that's going to help you. And build your strength. And we know this is not an easy journey. But it's one to be embraced and to learn from. And I think that's what you've done with your various careers. And I think in many ways, for you, it's good that accounting didn't work out right after high school.

 | 38:26 | Absolutely. Yes, I might have had more years of experience, but I wouldn't have had the years of experience that I had. Yes. And those helped to shape me to the person that I am that was able to start back at fan Shah in 2020. Yeah. And take this journey again. Yes. I think that's so true. Thank you for speaking with me today. Thank you for having me.

 | 38:55 | It was an absolute pleasure. I enjoyed our conversation very much. Thanks, Abby. And to our viewers and listeners, I really love when we have these hodgepodge careers and life experiences because every single thing counts. There's nothing to discount in the experiences that we have in life and listening to Abby's story. Just fantastic. And as I said, I think a very persevering person and a bit of stubbornness in there as well.

 | 39:25 | And that always helps. So to our viewers and listeners, listen to us wherever you get your podcasts, if you're a viewer, we're on YouTube. Thank you so much for joining Abby and me today. And until we meet again.