This is Part Two of My Journey Home To Myself — A Four-Part Story. Before moving forward, don’t forget to read Part One.
The Corporate World
After a 10-day road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Coachella in April 2015, I returned home with a newfound determination—I was going to move to San Francisco and work for a hypergrowth tech startup.
The odds weren’t in my favor by any means. As an entry-level Canadian applicant, I needed a company willing to sponsor my visa—a near-impossible task for someone just starting out. But, I was relentless and resilient. After countless job applications and rejections, I finally landed a role at a B2B SaaS company venture-backed by Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
By October 2015, after navigating a maze of visa complications (I’ll spare you the details), I packed my bags and officially made the leap to San Francisco.
Over the next five years, I dove headfirst into my corporate role, helping transform the company from a scrappy sub-100-person hypergrowth SaaS startup into a global enterprise powerhouse. In 2017, I left San Francisco for New York City, taking on the challenge of scaling the business across the East Coast and Europe, fully embracing the fast-paced demands of expansion at every turn.
Throughout this time, I continued to explore and deepen my knowledge of holistic health and healing—immersing myself in even more books, healers, teachers, events, podcasts, and new modalities than before.
In February 2018, I started my Instagram—@thatplantbasedgal—as a creative outlet to share my passion for health. I posted pictures of my 'healthy’ plant-based lunches from Sweetgreen, Dig Inn, CAVA, and The Little Beet. (Scroll all the way back, and you’ll still find them!)
My boss dubbed me the "plant-based powerhouse,” and nearly everyone at my office came to me for health advice.
But, for years, I suppressed my desire to turn this passion into a full-fledged career.
It didn’t feel “viable.”
On paper, everything looked great. Yet, behind the scenes, I often felt disconnected, lethargic, lonely, anxious, low energy, and entirely misaligned—though I didn’t fully admit it to myself yet.
I found myself caught in a cycle of extremes—mornings spent nourishing my body with smoothies, cold-pressed juices, peaceful walks, or intense workouts at SoulCycle, AARMY, or Barry’s Bootcamp, and experimenting with new meditation practices. But by evenings and weekends, I was swept up in the whirlwind of expensive dinners, happy hours, late nights, bachelorette parties, weddings, relentless work trips, and the nonstop hustle of downtown New York City life.
I dated a string of emotionally unavailable men, each experience leaving me deeply hurt and heartbroken—again and again. I internalized those feelings, convinced that I wasn’t good enough or worthy of love. To compensate, I felt I had to prove my worth through more achievement and success.
So, I doubled down. I stayed the course, pushing myself harder as I continued to climb the corporate ladder.
The Driftwood
Gabby Bernstein uses the term driftwood as a metaphor for signs that you're on the right path, even if your desires haven’t fully manifested yet.
Driftwood is like pieces of debris floating in the water before spotting land; it’s the Universe’s way of signaling that you’re getting closer to your destination.
Even though I didn’t know this term at the time, I experienced this phenomenon repeatedly over this 5-year period.
The solo trip to New Zealand
In November 2017, I had just moved to New York City from San Francisco and was gearing up for the holidays back home in Montreal with my family.
Instead, on a whim, I booked a one-way ticket to Auckland, New Zealand—a week before I left. I had no set itinerary, just a backpack and a rough idea of the places I wanted to explore.
Before boarding the plane, I did something radical for the time. I fully disconnected from work—logging off Slack and turning off my work emails.
This trip was my first true escape from the “matrix”. For the first time, I let go of societal pressures, the constant hustle, and the noise of everyday life. I allowed myself to fully immerse in the present moment.
In this space of stillness and solitude, I felt deeply connected to something bigger than myself. My spirituality blossomed, and I began contemplating life’s bigger questions:
— Who am I, really?
— Why am I here?
— What is my purpose in this life?
— If I were to die tomorrow, what would I want my legacy to be?
With uninterrupted time to reflect, I planted the seeds for the life I dreamed of creating—one rooted in alignment, purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.
The colonics with Gil Jacobs
I’ll never forget my first gravity colonic with Gil Jacobs at his East Village studio in New York. Gil, a trained colon hydrotherapist dubbed the godfather of colonics, has dedicated over 35 years to promoting deep cellular cleansing and regeneration through his work and has been a shepherd of this approach to healing and whole body transformation.
After my session, I called my best friend and sister-in-law, Samantha, bursting with elation. "This is it," I told her. "Cleansing and detoxification are the missing links to achieving optimal health”.
The ‘serendipitous’ encounters
In 2019 or 2020 (the exact dates blur together), I crossed paths with some of my health heroes—Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Vincent Pedre, and Kelly LeVeque—while simply walking the streets of New York. Not long after, I found myself sitting next to Robin Berzin M.D. on a flight from San Francisco to New York and helped her bring her carry-on bags through the airport.
I couldn’t help but tell each of them how much I admired their work.
Were these chance encounters—or was the Universe sending me driftwood?
The retreat in Costa Rica
In February 2020, just before the pandemic hit, I attended a 10-day yoga, surf, and meditation retreat in Costa Rica.
One morning, during a journaling exercise, we were asked to envision where we would be five years later, on February 14, 2025.
I wrote:
— I’m living in Los Angeles, in a small bungalow by the beach, waking up to the sound of birds and swaying palm trees.
— I’m starting my mornings with breathwork, meditation, and a walk on the beach.
— I’m helping people resolve their health issues through coaching, sharing my message broadly, and writing a health-related book.
— I’m surrounded by a community of like-minded people who nourish and uplift me.
At the time, it felt so far out of reach.
The social media growth
After hopping between Costa Rica, New York, Paris, London, and Los Angeles in February 2020 alone, the pandemic hit. Suddenly, I found myself stuck in my studio apartment in New York City, feeling more lost, anxious, and misaligned than ever before.
I turned to @thatplantbasedgal as my creative outlet, posting simple, healthy, plant-based recipes.
To my surprise, people noticed.
They started following me, then liking, commenting, and sharing my posts with others. Brands reached out, offering collaborations and partnerships.
It was the driftwood I didn’t even realize I needed.
The short stint in Venice, California
Right before the pandemic hit, I had started dating a guy who lived in Venice, California.
Instead of enduring endless FaceTime calls while stuck in our respective homes, we decided it would be a good idea for me to temporarily move in with him. So, in March 2020, I packed my bags and flew to Venice.
While the relationship didn’t work out (lesson learned—moving in with someone you just met isn’t exactly the recipe for a healthy relationship), my time in Venice left a lasting impression.
I spent almost a month living there, and I knew in my bones that Los Angeles, specifically Venice, would one day be my forever home.
Stay tuned for Part Three, where I’ll share the next chapter of my story—the big leap into the unknown and the awakening that ensued. Also, don’t forget to read Part One.