The Nanny Graduate.

Here I am: Pregnant and blogging.

My name is Airika Owen and I recently graduated from journalism school in Vancouver B.C. I love writing and photography and I was planning on packing up my diploma and setting out for new horizons in a new town with a community paper.

But all of that is on hold for awhile because...SURPRISE...I'm having a baby instead. Thank God I researched how to freelance while raising children as a project in one of my final term classes.

So I'm setting out with a diploma in one hand and a positive pregnancy test in the other. Well...not really, I didn't keep the pee stick. But I have a photo of it.

I feel ready, trained, prepared, not in the dark, because for over ten years I worked as a nanny. Still do actually. I am heading into this with knowledge, skills and tried and tested hands on experience that very few parents have when they buckle up baby in the new car seat and pull out of the hospital parking lot.

This time there is no giving baby back at the end of the day. There is no falling in love and then leaving them behind. I have worried for, been proud of, frustrated with and exhausted by all of the little ones I have cared for, but as much as I loved them, none were for keeps. This one is mine!!!

I promise I will still feel lost. Still be confused. Still seek advice and for sure I will still feel anxious. But I am looking forward to taking my hard-earned skills and applying them to my very own baby. Just as I will take my journalism skills and apply them to my next career.

I am almost a journalist and almost a mommy. I have graduated twice this year!