My story begins in Lebanon, as a young man I chose to attend University in Mathematics all the while pursuing my entrepreneurial spirit by owning my own restaurant. Although I didn’t really follow my passion, I was successful and living life as most do, without questioning my true path.
Fast forward to 2009, when life as I knew it took a very different turn. I moved to Canada to marry my wife and start a new life. I had the unique opportunity to re-question what my true passion was, realizing that I had a natural ability to problem solve and enjoyed fixing anything that required detailed analysis and research.
I started finding issues to fix around my home, using my own skill and ability to work well with limited equipment, I quickly found that I could find solutions to most issues and fix things myself. This is what led me to attempting to fix our cars myself, and I realized how much money I was saving by doing the work. I was also frustrated at finding that the work done on my car when brought to a garage was not done well and usually required me to recheck the work. I thoroughly enjoyed working on my car and thought of how rewarding a career in this field could be. I did my research and realized that we had a very reputable school nearby that offered a great program in Auto Mechanics. After a year and a half of trying to get all my official documents from the government and my home country, I was finally registered at NOVA and started the program in January of 2014.
I cannot explain how excited I was to begin my quest to acquire as much knowledge as possible in this very interesting trade. I have not regretted my decision as I truly feel that I have found what I was meant to do. My story is a reminder to everyone that it is never too late to rethink your career in order to find happiness in a field that you are truly passionate about. The NOVA Career Centre provided me a chance to do just that…a career in Automobile Mechanics.
-Sami Makhlouf, Student, NOVA Auto