Hello / Bonjour / Weykp!
My name is Lacee Smith and I am a teacher candidate in Thompson Rivers University’s Bachelor of Education Elementary.
I was born and raised in Kamloops, BC which is located in the traditional and unceded territory of the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc. There I attended Bert Edwards Elementary School (now Bert Edwards Science and Technology School) and Norkam Secondary. Throughout my school years I was also enrolled at the Dance Gallery where I took extensive dance classes and performed in local competitions in tap, jazz, ballet, and musical theatre.
From ages 6 – 16 I danced competitively alongside this same group of gals. This particular photo was taken when I was 16 after a performance of our musical theatre rendition of the song America from the musical West Side Story.
After my grade 12 graduation, I attended TRU and then UBC where I began a degree in Earth and Oceans Sciences. After several years of full time studies, I decided to take a break and go travelling. My first trip was to Hawaii to explore the regions infamous volcanoes and spectacular natural landscapes. On my second trip, I spent 6 weeks in Central America, starting in Belize and ending in Guatemala. It was there that I began to grasp the magnitude of my privilege. After these trips I returned to school, but I had less motivation to complete my studies and was now more interested in discovering and experiencing different cultures and ways of living.
After those short trips I decided that I wanted a more in depth experience, so I applied for a working holiday visa and spent two years in New Zealand. While there, I travelled the country for a month before settling into NZ’s most touristy location, Queenstown. I got a job at a small pub and spent the next two southern hemisphere summers enjoying the vast expanse of downhill mountain biking that the town has to offer.
In the middle of my time in New Zealand, I chose to pursue a then passion of mine, yoga. I travelled to Mexico for three weeks in June of 2016 to complete a 200hr yoga teacher training at Yandara Yoga Institute. This transformative experience was one of the first moments that I felt an inextricable pull towards teaching. I taught yoga briefly after my certification, but eventually realized that despite my love for teaching, yoga wasn’t the industry I was meant to be in.
During my stay at Yandara, all of the yoga teachers in training slept in individual tents in between the beach and the communal area. We were completely isolated from the nearest town and I would only contact my family on Sundays. This isolation allowed us to connect more deeply with ourselves and with each other.
As the expiration date for my New Zealand working visa quickly approached, I decided that I wasn’t yet ready to return home. I had some friends travelling to Japan to snowboard for a season, and so I decided to follow. I attained a working holiday visa and spent the following six months in the country’s northernmost island, Hokkaido, during their busy winter season. There I managed a small café in a resort town called Niseko.
While in Japan, I was lucky enough to work with an amazing and supportive crew of Japanese folks who helped me learn the basics of the language and the correct pronunciation. Though I have learned the basics of French, Spanish, and Italian, the immersive lingual experience I had in Japan made the biggest and most lasting impact.
I finally returned to Canada in 2018 to be closer to my family and my new niece. I moved to Revelstoke, BC when I began to think about returning to school. It was then and there that I began to realize how much I enjoy spending time with elementary aged kids. After much reflection, I decided to apply to Thompson Rivers’ Bachelor of Education Elementary program. Being accepted into the program meant moving back to my hometown of Kamloops, a challenging transition for me, but one that I was ready to accept head on.
This most recent of university experiences at TRU has been by far the most inspiring. In such a short amount of time, I have done so much learning and growing, and I am completely ecstatic to continue to do so throughout my teaching career. As I have settled back in to Kamloops, I have become more and more involved with the community that I grew up in and finally have an opportunity to give back to the place and the people that occupy the space that has such a major influence on my life.
