A journey of growth with author April Joy T. Abit
UTM alumna shares past PWC publications and reflects on the complicated reality of career paths.
As people enter the workforce and leave behind adolescence stride by stride, there is a never-ending fear to settle and establish ourselves in terms of our careers, relationships, and sense of selves. However, University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) alumna April Joy T. Abit emphasizes that growth is a process.
Abit’s initial career path did not go as planned. Before she immigrated to Canada in 2016, she earned her nursing degree in the Philippines. Abit describes the unfortunate reality that her education, skilled as it may be, was unable to grant her a career in the Canadian medical field.
At UTM, she pursued a double major in the psychology and Professional Writing and Communication programs (PWC) as she realized her interests in both subjects. In 2020, she earned her Honours Bachelor of Science.
Abit graduated with publications from the PWC program, including her book Storm Surge as well as two short stories, “Catch” and “Ampule,” which were chosen for There: Stories About Places Near and Far—a collection of stories compiled and edited by PWC professor Robert Grant Price.
“Catch” and “Ampule” are originally part of a portfolio titled Point A to Point B that Abit wrote for PWC’s WRI370: Writing About Place course. In this portfolio, she details the fraught and tense atmosphere of her nursing internship days, contrasting two instances that display her growth as a medical professional. In one scenario, she struggles as she assists a delivery. In another, she simply checks on the patients, and it is business as usual.
While Abit fell in love with the PWC program during her university years, she does not have a professional interest in writing. Currently, she plans to return to studying medicine. “Our decisions are always a result of our learned experiences,” Abit says, explaining why she spent a lengthy amount of time exploring career options.
When it comes to reaching goals and having a sense of self figured out, Abit confidently states, “Not everything is high stakes. It’s okay to not know what you want to do right now. Your growth isn’t linear, and you shouldn’t compare yourself to others. Progress is different for everyone.”
