Betting Against Myself

I’ve been writing a lot about Lighthouse Labs since I started this blog and I’m pleased to announce, finally, that I applied and was accepted into their full time iOS Development cohort in Vancouver which starts in August. Look out world, Katie’s going to be making apps!

In June, I submitted my application for permanent residency (PR) to Canadian Immigration. Along with it, I have applied for a pilot program which grants open work permits to PR applicants while their application are being processed (a two-year ordeal). On the pilot program website, it clearly states that applicants will receive their work permit within four months of when Canadian Immigration receives their PR application.  Sounds straightforward, right? I used this information to plan when to apply for Lighthouse Labs. My cohort will finish in October and I should have a work permit in October. Perfect. However, I checked on my application this month by calling the immigration hotline and they told me a different story. According to them, my work permit application will be reviewed after four or five months at which point it will be rejected (!!!) or processed. The processing takes (insert unknown amount of time here). After I called the hotline, I struggled with whether I should postpone my Lighthouse Labs cohort until I have an actual work permit in my mitts. In the end, however, I’ve decided that I did my absolute best to get everything right with immigration and I’m going to proceed as planned.

Today I was listening to an episode of Planet Money in which an economist suggested that we should find opportunities in our lives to bet against ourselves. Her reasoning is that if you were really hoping for a success and instead you failed, well at least you won a bet. It helps take the edge off the sting and I would like to do just that. If I finish my cohort and I don’t have a work permit, I won’t be able to get a job. I can work on projects on my own until such time that I get a work permit, but it’s not ideal and I will be very frustrated. So how about this? I bet that I won’t have a work permit by the end of October. Who wants to take the other side of that bet? I am open to the terms of the bet – it could be for a bottle of champagne, $20, a spa day, anything you would like to get if you win and that you think will make me feel better if I win. If I can work at the end of my cohort, I will pay up with glee. Message me, call me, leave a comment, whatever! I will take as many bets as you want to place. Love you guys! Wish me and you and everyone else luck!