Always Look Forward

ALWAYS LOOK FORWARD

Kyle Hitchburn was excited. He just boarded the plane in Vancouver and was waiting for the takeoff to start his flight to Auckland in New Zealand. He wasn’t looking forward to the fourteen and half hour flight, that’s for sure. He was thankful he was flying first class though as his six foot frame would be very uncomfortable crammed in the seats in the back for that long. Kyle wasn’t even that thrilled about going to New Zealand this time either. What excited him was the fact that he was getting to see Corine Tigranian again.

Kyle and Corine had known each other for over twenty years now. They had first met as colleagues through work. He was working in the sales department of a mid range paper manufacturer when Corine had started working at one of his main suppliers. Kyle did the purchasing of those supplies so he was in constant contact with her. Now he was on his way to surprise her with a speech at a ceremony celebrating her achievements. His Corine was receiving the New Zealand Order of Merit. As the person who knew her best, he was asked to make a speech talking about her life.

“Please fasten your seatbelt sir. We are about to take off” a young brunette flight attendant with blue eyes asked me kindly. 

“Sorry about that. Just lost in thought” he replied while fastening the seatbelt.

As the plane started it’s take off procedures, Kyle’s thoughts went back to Corine. He had so much to thank her for. He had always wanted to be a writer but had forgotten about his dream. He was perfectly happy at his job but that wasn’t his dream. She inspired Kyle with all of her support and motivation and soon he started writing again. Corine was also along every step of the way using her savy business sense to help get him published. Now five novels later he was living his ideal life. And he owed a lot of that to her.

When the plane reached flying altitude the lights came on saying that they could remove their seatbelts. Kyle then pulled out his iPad to go over his speech. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t too long as he could go on all day about all of Corine’s accomplishments. How she became a self made successful woman. Making great achievements in whatever she did.

Corine was from Lebanon, being born and raised in Beirut. She was of Armenian decent and lived happily with her family as a young child. She lived with her mom and dad, Zepour and Kevork, and her sister and brother, Lala and Armen. Her first eight years were ideal until the Civil War started in 1975. 

Before then she would remember her dad taking her to the local bakery for treats whenever she got good grades in school. And she was good at school. Always the smartest in her class. And she worked for that and earned that. Zepour would often have to make Corine eat her lunch because she wanted to make sure everything is finished before she could enjoy her food. 

Everything in her life changed in 1978 when during the Hundred Days war her father was killed at work when his shop was bombed by a random shell sent in by one of the warring factions. From then on she had to grow up fast. Lucky for her Zepour was a strong woman and an even better mother. Also, Kevork left his family financially stable despite the civil war going on. They had little help from their outside family so the four formed a very strong bond together. A one for all and all for one kind of thing.

School was tough for them. Sometimes it would be on and others off depending what was happening in the Civil War. Zepour and Lala helped with the younger two keeping them up date in their schooling though. When school was open it also was a scary world for a young girl. Armen was there for her though, always walking to and picking her up from school. Corine felt safe with him. And after Lebanese billionaire Rafic Hariri began offering scholarships to worthy students in the 1980’s, Lala then Armen were able to get in to the American University of Beirut.

When it was Corine’s time she was easily accepted as well and received a full scholarship. This is when she first started seeing the jealousy in some of her friends. They thought that she had it easy and only got in because of her circumstances. But they were wrong. These so called friends did not see all the hard work she did and fun she sacrificed to achieve what she did. Nothing was given to here. She earned it all.

People tended to underestimate Corine. She stood five foot two and weighed maybe a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. She was a beautiful woman with dark brown eyes, light skin, dark fine hair and plump lips that most woman would kill to have and pay a lot of money to try and get. She took great pride in her appearance and always presented herself with the same elegance you would expect of Audrey Hepburn. 

In her first year of university her professor gave her the nickname Superwoman. He saw this pretty girly girl and expected someone who wouldn’t take Economics seriously. After he saw what she got on her first test, he knew he misjudged her. This young lady was special hence the nickname.

After she graduated she worked in Beirut for a couple of years at an accounting firm associated with one of the banks. But once again the Civil War made life difficult. Sometimes work was steady and others not. Lala had gotten a job teaching English in Dubai and had arranged for their mother to live with her. This is when Armen and Corine decided to look into moving to Canada. Armen was interested in Canada and Corine liked the chance and opportunity it presented. She was always looking to the future to better her self.

Now they could have gone the easy way and applied for refugee status and probably could have made it that way. There was a war going on. But they are both pure people who were raised right and knew that they could get in on their own merits and didn’t want to take someone else’s spot who might need it.

So they went through all the proper channels and they were both allowed over on student visas. Then after obtaining their MBA’s at the University of Toronto they both applied and got their work visas. Soon after they both applied for and received their Permanent Residency and as soon as they hit their three years as to be eligible, Canadian Citizenship. Corine was already looking ahead to her next step.

“Would you like a drink sir? Or maybe a coffee or tea?” the pretty brunette flight attendant asked, stirring Kyle back to reality.

“Just a tea with a spot of milk in it thanks” he answered

She quickly poured him a tea and moved on to the next passenger. Kyle then turned his attention back to the speech and Corine. His thoughts drifted to when they first met. 

When he first talked to her, she was just twenty seven years old but was already running the company she worked at. She was in charge of operations, accounting and took care of the sales as well. The owner of the company would only work part time and let Corine take care of the day to day business. Of course he would meddle and make her work life harder but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. 

As someone who was always looking ahead, this one job wasn’t enough for her. She took a job on weekends helping out an old professor of hers in his side bookkeeping business. But what impressed Kyle the most was when she got a on as a Professor at a local college teaching an accounting course three nights a week. She always loved to teach and pass on her knowledge to others. And once again she was looking to the future as she thought about becoming University Professor. 

Over time Kyle and Corine became so close that they were more like family than friends. It was in this period that she helped him fulfill his dream of becoming a published author. All he really did was write the novel. She helped him with all the rest. From the marketing on social media to finding him a proper agent and publisher. It was nice having such a forward thinking person in his corner. He really doesn’t know if he would have ended up being published without all of Corine’s hard work and foresight. He really did owe her is livelihood.

He wasn’t the only she helped with her forward thinking as well. Her brother always had a dream of opening his own restaurant. After she received her citizenship, she decided to leave her job and help Armen reach his dream. She knew what a great chef he was and as someone that was always looking to the future, she had already come up with a business plan. And because she was looking forward his restaurant began to flourish, becoming one of the most popular restaurants in the area. 

This was going well for her but what Kyle didn’t know at the time, Corine’s thoughts went to the future again for more opportunities. She applied and was accepted for a job at the University of Auckland in New Zealand as an Economics Professor. It was a bittersweet moment for Kyle as she would be leaving Canada and moving half a world away. But his happiness for her following her dreams trumped any sadness he had about her leaving. Besides, he always wanted to visit New Zealand and now he had a place to stay when he did.

“Excuse me sir” the flight attended interrupted his thoughts again. “Would you like a pillow and blanket? The captain will be dimming the lights in a few minutes to allow people to sleep if they choose.”

“Yes please that would be nice” he replied.

The sleep would do him good. He was so excited about seeing Corine again he had a hard time sleeping the night before. And it would make the long fight go by quicker. After he softened the pillow and leaned it on the head rest and covered himself with the blanket, Kyle closed his eyes and thought about Corine again.

After she had worked as a Professor in Auckland for about five years she was ready to move on to her next adventure. Corine was always interested in make-up and beauty products and wanted to come up with a natural line that was good for the environment and worked just as good as regular make-up and beauty products. There wasn’t really anything else like it on the market at the time like there is today so she knew if she could make a good quality product, it would sell.

She stayed on as a Professor for the next couple of years and worked part-time on her new business. However because of forward thinking on going natural, the business soon took off and she left her position at the university to work full-time on her beauty product line. Within a few more years her business had skyrocketed and her products were sold around the world.

Was this enough for Corine? Not at all. She was always looking to the future. She began to step away from the day to day operations of her company and started the Tigranian Foundation. A charity which helped underprivileged youth get into universities through both financial and educational aid. She has ended up helping out thousands of young adults through her foundation over the years.

It was because of her philanthropy that she was receiving this award. Not that she was doing it to be recognized. She didn’t care about things like that. Corine only did because she is a good pure person who only wanted to help others be all they could be. That is what was important to her. Making the world a better place.

Kyle was nearly falling asleep now as the plane got closer and closer to his destination. He had one final memory of a conversation he had with Corine talking about all her accomplishments before he fell asleep.

“What do you think is the secret to your success?” he had asked her recently over WhatsApp. He loved her answer. 

“It wasn’t always easy” she said. “First of all, you need to work hard and have clear and reachable goals. And always learn from your mistakes because everybody will make a few along the way. Don’t be afraid to take that first step.”

“And most importantly, always look forward!”