Janel’s Summer Recap in Sarnia-Lambton

So with my blog post It’s definitely starting off differently than the others. I had to work online from the end of June to Almost the end of July. Almost the end of the month of July I finally got the call that I get to start in the office. When I first started coming into the office here with everyone I was extremely nervous. I was thinking to myself everyone’s already got to know each other and I’m just some random girl joining in. After about 10-15 minutes of the always awkward first meeting I had felt happy that I had got to join them. So that was definitely one of my favourite highlights of this summer. About maybe 3 days we had our first day when I was there, where we got to go out and have a road trip day where we went around and promoted small businesses.

The day started and I swear we got lost 10 times and then when we got to our place we needed to be the places were closed. It was funny though because everyone would laugh about it, more so because they had all said how Megan’s phone always liked to take the long way to places or get them lost to a place that is already closed. So that was definitely a highlight because it felt like the first time I had actually got to get out of the office with the girls. So all of that was before I had got to meet Ethan. At first Ethan and I hardly spoke a word to each other, maybe a hi here and there but never had I had a conversation with him. That was until he and I had to go to Black Gold Brewery just him and I.

Haley had called in, I wasn’t scared but I was l thinking to myself “How am I going to talk to someone for 8 whole hours after I have never had a conversation with him!”. We had about a half hour drive together, the drive wasn’t bad, it kind of broke the ice and then we made it to the brewery. Once we got there we had some good laughs and ended up talking the whole time. So that was a highlight as well.

Some things I have learned this summer while being with TSL is that there are a lot more people travelling far away from Sarnia very often and a lot of people enjoy our booths for maybe a little souvenir or a map and guide and I always found it very interesting.

I have also learned about so many more places in Sarnia, as in there are a lot more small businesses out there and a lot more places you can visit in Sarnia Lambton. It has definitely made me want to show my family and friends all the cool places they would never know to go visit. I have definitely learned that It Is okay for me to talk and explain things too, no matter how less of a time I have been working than others. Then to add to that one whenever our little team is brainstorming even If I may be wrong or I could be right I have learned that it is okay to say my ideas and they will almost always listen. I have learned as well that jobs like this really makes it enjoyable to work and makes people not dread going into a shift. I feel it makes me happy no matter what I am doing.

I didn’t get to make it out to a lot of events but when I did my favourite ones were first the Captain Kidd Day.

That day was genuinely so fun, It had felt like the first time I had got to get involved with the event. They let me do a lot of talking and there were a lot of laughs that day. We had got to see a lot of people and see a lot of fun things around us. It definitely made for a good day.

The second event that was my favourite was going to the Imperial City Brew House.

I got to go there with Haley & Baillie. We had an absolute blast. All of the workers there were so very nice and all of the people around us wanted to talk to us about what we were doing. The girls and I had so many laughs, some delicious food and just and overall amazing time there. The workers definitely played a huge part just because of how kind and fun they were. We got to see some of their trivia night which was also so much fun. Those were my two favourite events I had gone to. I don’t have a lot of options with that one though but I had a blast!

During my short summer as a summer student I had a pretty unique experience when I was out with the crew. We had went to Munro Honey & Meadery, we had been looking around before we set up our booth and they asked us if we had we had wanted a tour around.

Of course we had to say yes, so as they were showing us around we got to go to the very back and see a billion bees. Now as much as I am terrified of getting stung by a bee it was so amazing being able to see that this is how they do it.

The girls gave us a tour of everything where they make the honey and what is what and it was so amazing. We did try to find the queen bee but we were out of luck. But that was definitely a unique experience as a summer student.

As I had mentioned earlier, when me and the girls had gone on a road trip we had stopped at 2 underrated places that I had never been to before. The first place we had stopped at was the Sunflower Field in Lambton Shores.

I had seen a few pictures of it before but seeing it in real life was actually so cool. Yes people were taking pictures there but I had felt that there was definitely more to it than just some pictures. Some people really worked so hard on making a bunch of fields for people to see and walk around. I found that my favourite part about it. The second place that I found underrated on the road trip was Macklin’s Farm Produce.

I had been berry picking one time when I was little and never since. We got there and it was not expensive at all and you could pick so many things. We had chosen strawberries and they were delicious!! We genuinely had such a great time and I feel it brought back so many memories and it made me think more people need to come here!

There is another question that I am being asked and it is “Do you feel more appreciative of Sarnia-Lambton now that you have taken the time to explore and learn about the area?”.

My answer to that is yes. I have never really gone around Sarnia-Lambton to the little places and little small businesses that you would never think to visit. Also seeing all the water we have and all the amazing fields and just so many things are in Sarnia-Lambton that there is that so many people don’t know about. I genuinely wish that there were more places like TSL to promote all the things in Sarnia-Lambton. But yes I have definitely felt more appreciative of

Sarnia-Lambton now that I have taken the time to explore the area.