I remember the first time my mom and I got into the elevator after a session with Melinda. We looked at each other, wide-eyed, and said, “that was amazing.” Melinda had just founded Options Solutions in West Vancouver and, to this day, every meeting with Melinda has been equally as amazing as the first one. It’s no surprise to me how much Options Solutions has grown, and that Melinda has engaged such an excellent group of consultants and staff.
I have never been what I refer to as a “superstar” student or athlete. I was never the kid who got straight A’s or the star athlete who joined every team, but I enjoyed playing competitive sports, I liked my schoolwork, and I wanted to continue to play hockey at the university level. I also had very particular goals I wanted to achieve, which included going to a good university and eventually going to medical school. The minute I met Melinda, I knew it wouldn’t be an ordinary meeting. She had so much energy and enthusiasm she was practically bouncing, and she wanted to know who I was as a person, what my goals were, and what drove me to achieve them. Never once did she look at me as a set of grades or a number, but instead, looked at all the components of who I was, what I wanted, and what I wanted to achieve to determine a full picture of what made me special. There was a reason my mom and I walked out of the room shell-shocked after our first Melinda meeting: she was the superstar.
From that first meeting on, I continued to seek Melinda’s help with everything from my university applications to my hockey recruitment process. Melinda was, as I learned she always is, efficient, prepared and engaging. I loved her colour-coded notes, her flowchart visual planning style, and her endless wealth of information about any subject I could think to ask her. I always tell people that I can accomplish more with Melinda in half an hour than I can in two weeks by myself. As expected, in what felt like no time at all, Melinda had helped me find a great university that was a good fit for me, where I would play varsity hockey, and where I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the size of the school.
Over the course of my schooling, I often went to Melinda for guidance and planning assistance. When I was struggling with calculus, she had a tutor recommendation for me. When I needed help pursuing a master’s degree, she guided me in the right direction. When I struggled with my medical school applications, she not only explained the application process to me, but also provided me with every invaluable resource she had at her disposal. Not only was Melinda a continuous encourager and a vast wealth of knowledge, she was always realistic about that things don’t always go according to plan. So for every plan we made, she also had ideas for a plan B and a plan C, which comforted me greatly during the times when my future seemed uncertain.
Today, I am finishing my master’s degree in Biology and will be attending The University of British Columbia (UBC) in the fall to study medicine. When I received my medical school acceptance letter, I had to tell Melinda immediately because she has played such an important role in my life. For me, Melinda is not just an excellent academic counselor. Yes, she is the human encyclopedia for higher education, but she also is so much more. Even when I couldn’t see them, she looked at all of my qualities and told me why each one of them would help me get to where I wanted to go. When I would walk into her office, defeated by a reason I couldn’t achieve my goal, she looked me right in the eyes and gave me ten reasons why I could succeed. Then, after renewing my motivation, she would tell me exactly how we were going to make it happen. And we did!
~Natalie
