I've had face-to-face conversations with everyone from Nobel Peace Prize winners to Oscar winners to POWs to famous comedians to your next door neighbour who you didn't know was making such a difference. And since kindness is contagious, this helped to spread this - kindness virus - throughout our communities, our country and beyond ...
A social good advocate, talk show host, writer, producer, actor, polyglot (A poly-what?), journalist, certified personal trainer, professional Ping-Pong player (yes, seriously) ... I attribute all my best successes so far, to all my greatest failures.
I graduated high school extra early. Travelled. Got my BA Honours degree in political science and theatre with a minor in German. Then quickly climbed the corporate ladder at Air Canada and secured a highly desirable job. I was living the dream - someone else's dream. So I quit, left Montreal, and began the nightmare of returning to school. But I couldn't wait to be on radio. So, while in school, I pitched "Danger Girl" to 99.9 BOB FM.
After a relentless pursuit, the big boss - the program director - calls me in.
PD: "Dahlia, we have a big idea. First, are you afraid of anything?"
ME: "I'm not afraid of anything."
ME IN MY HEAD: "I'm afraid of everything."
PD: "Good. Because we plan to submerge you in 10,000 gallons of water. For 48 hours. To broadcast live on-air. Launch the station. And raise money for Sick Kids.”
ME: "Awesome!" (Actually, I have no idea how I replied, because I think I blacked-out inside.)
PD: “Oh, and this will be Danger Girl’s audition." (Good thing I already blacked-out, or the word “audition” would’ve killed me.)
It's the day of the event. A massive tank on a flatbed truck is situated on the parking lot at the city's busiest mall. A crowd has gathered. I put on my full face mask, no other gear, and prepare to enter the 10,000 gallons of death. (By the time I was done, it was probably 10,010 gallons ... Well, can you hold it in for 48 hours?) Once completely underwater, I go on air - for the first time in my life. Within the first hour I was swimming around like a mermaid and doing enough flips that my ears were popping (and continued popping for the next month). And, yes, I got the job.
In my last year of journalism school I interned at CBC, hoping to be hired. But they told me they "never" hire interns. Then I broke a story about police brutality. In other breaking news, CBC hired an intern.
Soon after, I found myself travelling the world for acting and TV hosting opportunities. As an actor, I felt the pressures of body image. Even when I dropped to 90 pounds I was still told to lose weight. What? Did they want me to remove a kidney? Once I returned to Canada, all that nonsense inspired me to create the country's first ever body image awareness program for girls: Bye-Bye, Barbie!.
Then came the country's first nationally syndicated social media meets pop culture column, and my first shot at regularly being published in over 200 Sun Media papers across Canada with #eSaidSheSaid. Recently, I was honoured to be chosen to write the foreword for Woman: An Anthology - an award-winning book that includes authors such as Stephen King and Alice Munro. From thousands of books around the world, it won the Independent Publisher Gold Medal for Book of the Year in New York. (Wow. I've been a writer for years. Maybe it's time to promote myself from writer to writest.)
But I'm not just a writer, I'm a righter too. And introduced the country to its first social good talk show on one of Canada's heritage radio stations. So, what's an award-winning social good talk show host? Well, you SAY IT FORWARD ... like this.
A social good advocate, talk show host, writer, producer, actor, polyglot (A poly-what?), journalist, certified personal trainer, professional Ping-Pong player (yes, seriously) ... I attribute all my best successes so far, to all my greatest failures.
I graduated high school extra early. Travelled. Got my BA Honours degree in political science and theatre with a minor in German. Then quickly climbed the corporate ladder at Air Canada and secured a highly desirable job. I was living the dream - someone else's dream. So I quit, left Montreal, and began the nightmare of returning to school. But I couldn't wait to be on radio. So, while in school, I pitched "Danger Girl" to 99.9 BOB FM.
After a relentless pursuit, the big boss - the program director - calls me in.
PD: "Dahlia, we have a big idea. First, are you afraid of anything?"
ME: "I'm not afraid of anything."
ME IN MY HEAD: "I'm afraid of everything."
PD: "Good. Because we plan to submerge you in 10,000 gallons of water. For 48 hours. To broadcast live on-air. Launch the station. And raise money for Sick Kids.”
ME: "Awesome!" (Actually, I have no idea how I replied, because I think I blacked-out inside.)
PD: “Oh, and this will be Danger Girl’s audition." (Good thing I already blacked-out, or the word “audition” would’ve killed me.)
It's the day of the event. A massive tank on a flatbed truck is situated on the parking lot at the city's busiest mall. A crowd has gathered. I put on my full face mask, no other gear, and prepare to enter the 10,000 gallons of death. (By the time I was done, it was probably 10,010 gallons ... Well, can you hold it in for 48 hours?) Once completely underwater, I go on air - for the first time in my life. Within the first hour I was swimming around like a mermaid and doing enough flips that my ears were popping (and continued popping for the next month). And, yes, I got the job.
In my last year of journalism school I interned at CBC, hoping to be hired. But they told me they "never" hire interns. Then I broke a story about police brutality. In other breaking news, CBC hired an intern.
Soon after, I found myself travelling the world for acting and TV hosting opportunities. As an actor, I felt the pressures of body image. Even when I dropped to 90 pounds I was still told to lose weight. What? Did they want me to remove a kidney? Once I returned to Canada, all that nonsense inspired me to create the country's first ever body image awareness program for girls: Bye-Bye, Barbie!.
Then came the country's first nationally syndicated social media meets pop culture column, and my first shot at regularly being published in over 200 Sun Media papers across Canada with #eSaidSheSaid. Recently, I was honoured to be chosen to write the foreword for Woman: An Anthology - an award-winning book that includes authors such as Stephen King and Alice Munro. From thousands of books around the world, it won the Independent Publisher Gold Medal for Book of the Year in New York. (Wow. I've been a writer for years. Maybe it's time to promote myself from writer to writest.)
But I'm not just a writer, I'm a righter too. And introduced the country to its first social good talk show on one of Canada's heritage radio stations. So, what's an award-winning social good talk show host? Well, you SAY IT FORWARD ... like this.
