Friday, January 29, 2010

Introducing Matt McJannet

Hello to all our clients!

Well, about 4 years ago, while working as a broker, in my office at The Mortgage Centre, and not having a vacation for 2 years, feeling stressed, my Dad whom had just returned from Thailand suggested that I go. I quickly agreed and headed to Asia with nothing but a back pack. While traveling for the month I did some scuba diving and fell in love with the sport. When I came home I heard of a diving college in Kelowna and handed my dad my notice. A just reward for him, letting me go on vacation!

It was time to see some of the world that I now know can be very different from home, but far more entertaining! I spent a very exciting three years diving in Costa Rica, Australia and then finally got a job for a cruise line teaching scuba throughout the Caribbean. Sounds great right? It was almost all “ups” but of course there were some “downs”.

After working in Costa Rica for a month, my employer decided he didn’t want to pay me what we had agreed upon anymore. And being that I was way up north, literally in the middle of no where, he figured I would accept it, as I was pretty much stuck.

Little did he know how determined I was to leave after this incident. The only plane coming for the next 3 weeks was at 4:00am the next day. Well, thanks to the “Mortgage Man's” credit card I was able to get a flight on that dirt runway at 4:00am in the morning.

After this I decided that Australia would be my next destination. It was an absolute blast with some of the best diving I’ve ever seen. I spent almost my whole year in a little beach town in Queensland called Airlie beach. I had an awesome time and would have stayed longer if my working visa allowed. Mom and Dad even made it out to visit me for Christmas one year.

Working for the cruise line was great. I first was sent to work on a private island in the Bahamas, sunshine all day, turquoise waters, paradise! Then had my rotation to one of the cruise ships, which was the biggest one in the world at the time, where I taught scuba to the guests.

After 2 months I was rotated to another private destination, this time Haiti. This was such an experience for me. I met a young boy who would help me work at my station when there was no ship in. He spoke no English at that time but was always smiling and ready to help me do what ever cleaning or maintenance I was doing that day. Over the course of a few months I found out that he was an orphan who slept on the floor of a little brick hut in the village, which eventually he took me to see. I spent many months coming and going to Haiti over the next couple years. Before I left after my first 6 months I spent $150.00 to buy a school uniform, shoes and books for this boy. Education was free if you had these 3 things. Next time I arrived he was practicing his English with me and smiling even bigger.

Now I feel I have done the traveling that I needed to do and am back with my father's business and ready to make a different kind of splash, one in the mortgage industry. I look forward to talking to each of my fathers clients over the next year and believe I can follow and eventually fill his foot steps.
Matt McJannet

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