BROOKE BALLANTYNE

After graduating from PW, I went straight to UBC and began my Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. It took me about six years to complete instead of four because I worked and travelled while going to school. I think I've worked for most coffee shops in the Lower Mainland, and also for the Keg, TGI Fridays (dear LORD, we had to wear "pieces of flair" - everything you've seen in Office Space is true), GM Place (got to see concerts and Canuck games for free), the Commodore Ballroom (more concerts for free - the good ones this time), and the Canadian Diabetes Association (I coordinated their "Team Diabetes" marathon program). I travelled around Europe for a month the summer after my first year at UBC, and travelled to Northern Ireland and Amsterdam near the end of my BA.

I decided to continue at UBC to grad school, mostly because I was enjoying being a student, and also because I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do. It was at this time that I met the love of my life, Jeremy, at a mutual friend's birthday party. We moved in together a few months later, and he supported me financially so I could focus on Grad School full time (what a guy!).

I started in the Master's of Library, Archival and Information Studies program with the vague intention of being a Children's Librarian. Over the two years of the program, I moved steadily toward Clinical/Medical Librarianship. I'm now running library services for BC Mental Health and Addiction Services through our two libraries at Riverview Hospital and the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, both in Coquitlam, BC.

My man and I live in a highrise in Burnaby with his six-year-old son Kyle on the weekends. We've travelled to Mexico three years in a row now, and on our most recent trip he asked me to marry him.