Volume 9: Home is Where the Work Is

Volume 9: Home is Where the Work Is

Happy New Year, LinkedIn!?

2023 was one for the books in the Burke household: anniversaries, celebrations, lots of food, some great concerts, launching our business, and to cap it all off, a trip in December to Scotland and Ireland in December to visit Eddie’s family over the holidays.

We’d been looking forward to flying back to Dublin for months: after almost a year of waiting for my passport after changing my last name from Barroso to Burke and almost 18 months of waiting for Eddie’s Permanent Resident card to finally come through, finally getting to travel outside of the country felt like a long time coming.

We expected quality time with family and friends, some sightseeing for me (who had never been to Edinburgh), good food and lots of wine during our time overseas.


I wasn’t expecting to miss home so much that my heart ached.?


The homesickness hit me like a ton of bricks. This was supposed to be a time to relax, decompress and not think about work for a little while.

I should have been thinking about pints of Guinness instead of emails


But truth be told, I thought about work. A lot. Even worse? I wanted to think about work. What’s the reverse word for “Sunday Scaries?” For most of my adult life, I’d always had some version of the “Sunday Scaries”. That feeling of absolutely quiet dread on a Sunday evening, knowing and not knowing what the desk on Monday morning held in store for you.

Because whatever the word is for “reverse Sunday Scaries”, that was definitely me for most of December.?


“What’s wrong with me?”, I would ask Eddie, after a long arduous day of drinking wine and eating chocolates. “Why do I miss home so much?”?

“Maybe it’s because you actually like what you do now”, he said.

And like it, I do. Dare I say it…? I love work.


Since starting Burke By Burke in April, there hasn’t been a day that I’m not thinking about work: generating new ideas, connecting with prospective clients, starting new projects, learning new skills, creating business processes, and so on.

To go from spending every waking moment thinking about work, to suddenly being thrust into a holiday environment where work was supposed to be the last thing on my mind was not as easy of an adjustment as I thought it would be.


Don’t get me wrong. I’ve cherished every moment and memory over our holidays overseas. And to be fair, we did plenty of asynchronous work over the month of December to keep the business going while away from Vancouver.

Photographic evidence that I did indeed actually enjoy some time off during the holidays (Edinburgh Castle)


But my heart ached for Vancouver not just because it’s my hometown that I love so dearly; my relationship to this city goes beyond homegrown roots. Working in the real estate industry for so long, I now find that the boundaries of my professional and personal life are blurred in more ways than one: Port Moody is not only where we live, but also where we conduct business. Langley isn’t just where my sister and niece live, it’s where two of our clients are. Kelowna is now both a potential romantic getaway and a weekend business trip.?


My heart is intertwined with Vancouver in a way that I don’t truly appreciate until I'm away from it.


Ultimately, working asynchronously and remotely in Ireland in December was still the best gift over the holidays. Eddie and I are incredibly grateful that we have the opportunities to travel as often as we can; that privilege is never lost on us. Nor do I take Eddie’s choice to become a Permanent Resident and start a new chapter of his life in Canada, away from his own friends and family, lightly. I am forever appreciative of the life we have together.


But for me, home is where the work is. #VancouveriteForLife

There's no place like home, but instead of red ruby slippers it's a pair of Vessi's



"Happy New Year to you! I hope the new year brings you joy, health, and success." "Wishing you all the best in the new year. Happy New Year!" "I hope the new year brings you many happy moments and prosperity. Happy New Year!"

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