“Be careful what you wish for” Mum said to me today as I was chatting her about what I’m up to. She called via Skype from the boat on the East Coast of Canada. Been a couple days since we last taked. Before she went on her sailing trip we used to chat almost daily. I would fill her on on what I’m up to. She inspires me, always has. I miss her.  Everything I’m doing r I always wanteight now… the parties, the makeup the hair the clothes. It’s all new to me.  I always wanted to be doing this stuff. Mum says luck is where preperation meets opportunity. I feel grateful. I’ve worked my ass off the last few years.

I arrived in Toronto five years ago post uni in Australia. Back then, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I just did it. I believed in myself and I worked hard at whatever it was I was doing. When I was younger I used to say I wanted to be really well known for being good at something, I wasn’t sure what it was yet.  Maybe I still don’t? Either way, I have always been determined. When I really want to do something there is little to no stopping me. Mum will for SURE tell you that. I want to interview her one day so you can meet her.  She’s not been able to read my blog much from the boat, she usually reads it daily to see what I’m up to. She said it makes her happy. It makes me happy too.

I love looking back on what I was doing previous years, same time.  Makes me dream big about what I might be doing next year. Quite looking forward to the long  flight to New Zealand, that twenty or so hours to myself is going to be magical. I wonder if there will be internet? I hope no.

Hope you are not annoyed with my TIFFing. I am excited and I will continue to be excited about my life. You should be excited for yours too. It’s the only one you will ever have.

Thank you for reading. Love Casie xo

I was a young entrepreneur.

When I was 13, in grade 8, before I had internet, I started a publishing campany called Jeans Publishing with my friend Holly and the help of our Mums. We got funding to start our business and began taking on the DIY (do it yourself) circuit around Ontario attending conferences and seimnars on evenings and weekends.  We often set up a booth to talk about what we were doing and where we wanted to go. We though it was important for young people to have their work published, we were tired of people not taking us seriously just because we were youth. So, we did it ourselves.

We started a quarterly newsletter called Jeans Material where we published young peoples work and sent it out to out to over 100 subscribers across Canada. Each subscriber paid $5 for a one year subscription and we printed them all ourselves. We were official with our ISSN which allowed the identification of our serial publication.

We wrote an anthology of poetry and prose called JEANS and in 1996 I became a Published Canadian Author. Our book launch was at the Preston Library Branch on November 7, 1996 and we sold 81 books that night. One dollar from the sale of each book went to the local womens crisis shelter. This is me presenting the cheque. Don’t laugh at my bangs, there were horrible back then.

Jeans was an acronym that stood for Junior Education & Achivement Network System (tongue twister?). I’ve hunted around the internet to find stuff about it but it was so long ago, there’s nothing. (I’m sure newspaper archives exist.) Here’s what I have kicking around the house, most our stuff back at Mum’s tucked away.

We were in heaps of papers and it makes me feel really proud to look back at it. It was a really special and inspired time for me. I did some of my best writing ever back then. Highschool is hard and this gave me a creative outlet and kept me busy. We often spoke at promary school about the importance of reading, writing and following your goals

I was nominated for a YTV achievement award in the category of Writing. I got to go the ceremony and actually sat beside NicK & Drew Lachey from 98 Degrees.  I had NO idea who they were until they went on stage and waved at my sister and I. Robyn performed, she was great.

At 16, after heaps of involvement in the community and serving a year as PR Director for the City Youth Council, I was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the city of Cambridge. My school was given $1,500 for new computer equipment and Darryl Sitler presented the award at a ceremony.  I went on to wint he Miss Teen 1996 pageant and completed my three year term on the City Youth Council.

I really like helping people get following their dreams as mine have always inspired me. This past year, I was a mentor for Humber College’s Personal Brand Camp and a guest speaker at Mashable’s Social Media Day in Toronto. Next week I’m doing a webinar about personal branding for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation.

If you would like to check it out see their blog post here or sign up for the webinar. I promise not to be boring

When I was in grade school I was part of a skipping team for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. We went around to schools like yours and did crazy tricks like doing a cartweheel in to a double dutch with chinese ropes. We practiced often and had heaps of tricks. We were called the Preston Pump-Ups. We had one routien called 12th Street Rag and the melody got faster and faster and you had to speed up your steps. If you lasted till the end, you were good. I could do it pretty well. I really loved skipping.

(photo via laurencephilomene)

The content. The character.
The me. The judge.

Judge of content.
Character, the judge.

The judge of character.
The character of content.

Content my judge.
Of me, my character.

* wordplay

eye see rad people.

Put on some music miss thang, turn it up. Put on the lights and wear something cute. Headband hairpiece helps. Put all the clothes on the bed. Organize the empty hangers. Get the bins to throw stuff in. Put on lipstick. Put your clothes away. It doesn’t reallllllllly take that long. Clean up the other crap you’ve collected and throw shit out. Put clean sheets on the bed. Make bed, lay on top, relax. Look at the cleanness of the place, feel good. Go out and play.

Can’t focus. Keep thinking of you. Keep thinking about the impact you’ll have on my future. Our connection, your energy, my energy. So cold right now you are.You melt, I taste you. You feel nice on my skin, you feel nice all over me. When will I see you? Feel you. I don’t know. You are moving closer to me every single day.

The iceberg.

Sun out. Bikini on. Pool hang. Gon’ take vacation after a busy week post job. Nice brekky with Beans, she’s a good cook. Sun out. Couple prospects on the horizon. Feels nice. No big weekend plans. Dreaming of a room clean. Siesta in my future. Feel like a new tattoo. Thinking of Mum sailing the seas, miss sister and Dad too. Excited for Wakestock bikini hang. Might even gym today…ok probably not. Great meeting yesterday. Good friends last night but wasn’t  really feeling it. Energy low today. Reckon I need a break or a Kit Kat.

I like social and media. And I like talking. Pix frm the event are here via Kevin Chung. Here’s my talk, I hope you enjoy it.

Casie Stewart (@casiestewart) at #SMdayTO from Ron Wolf

I like talking about how many awesome people I have met through twitter. How I got a job because I really loved the internet, being social and sharing creativity all over the place. I like landscape photos better than portrait. I like when the sun shines through the clouds and you can see it coming right at you. I like writing the stories as they happen and living out all kinda of adventures. I like being positive, it’s really the best medicine you can give yourself.

I’ve always liked to write. In 1996 my friend Holly and I, with the help of our Mum’s publihed and anthology of poetry & prose called JEANS. It was all kinds of things we had written in Grade. 8. I wanna publish a new book. I have hundreds written verse and such just dying to have your eyes. Words all wanting attention. I’ve decided to hire and intern, I need some help with the casiestewart.com stuff. Looking for someone unique, someone kinda like me to be honest; loves internet, learning, sharing, twitter, hard work, fun. There’s always skill involved but the things that really matter most are not learned in class.

What I think (1996)

I’d like to do more public speaking. I like it and I’m just getting started. I won in a speech competition about a hundred years ago when I was younger. This one time, in drama class, I read my whole speech with my back facing the audience, it was the speech you tell youself before you go on stage. The two minute “you can do this, you are prepared, review key points ,come on just get out there and go, you are awesome”. Then, as I finished I turned around smiled at the audience and introduced myself. I loved that one.

I wanna quit you. Sometimes you make me so mad I could kill you, but it’s impossible. You are bigger than me and you are so well connected, you know everyone. I like that about you. You know everything about me, pretty much. You definitley know more than anyone else.  I can trust you, at least I think I can despite what everyone says. When people banded together to rally against you and said we should stop, I didn’t listen, I still spent time with you. Damn you Facebook, you had me at hello.

Hold back the night

For I fear the darkness

Take control and keep me safe

Hold back the night

For I cannot live without the light

Upon my face

Hold back the night

For my love will leave me

When the dark night approaches

published may 22, 2006