Growing up, creativity was part of everyday life for Natalie Sichon, BEd. Her father, a musician with a collection of more than 800 instruments, filled their home with music, while her mother also shared a love for art. As a child, she spent much of her time writing poetry and stories.
“I grew up in a very artistic family,” she says. “My dad was always playing instruments, and creativity was just something we were surrounded by.”
That environment helped shape both her creative interests and her career path. Even as a child, she knew she wanted to become a teacher.
“I always wanted to teach,” says Natalie. “I never really wavered from that.”
One of her earliest memories of teaching came when her younger brother was preparing to enter kindergarten. Determined to help him succeed, she took it upon herself to teach him the alphabet and early reading skills.
“I printed out worksheets and made him a little notebook to practice,” she recalls. “I remember feeling so excited teaching him. That was probably one of the first moments where I realized how much I loved it.”
After graduating from high school, she moved to the Okanagan to attend UBC Okanagan alongside some long-time friends. The move proved to be a turning point.
“I didn’t know much about the Okanagan before coming here, but I completely fell in love with it,” she says. “I love the dry climate, and I’m really happy here.”
After achieving her dream of becoming a teacher, she is now pursuing another lifelong passion: writing. At 18, she wrote the first draft of what would eventually become her first published children’s book, Lily’s Dreamland Adventures.
“I knew I wanted it to rhyme, and I came up with this idea where the last word of every page becomes one of the first words of the next,” she says. “I’d never really seen that in a book before — I thought it created a kind of flow.”
But finishing it took far longer than she expected.
“I knew if I wrote a children’s book, I wanted to illustrate it myself,” she says. “Kids love pictures, and it just wouldn’t feel right for me if someone else illustrated it.”
While writing came naturally, illustration pushed her outside her comfort zone. Using an iPad, she gradually taught herself to illustrate, and developed her own style—bright, colourful and playful.
“It was definitely a learning curve,” she says. “Every illustration took a lot of work, and sometimes I had to really push myself to keep going.”
Over several years she worked on the illustrations off and on, fitting the project around her education and teaching career. The final push came during a solo trip to Mexico City.
“I told myself, by the end of this trip, I’m finishing the book,” she says. “If I didn’t do it then, I felt like I might never do it.”
Completing the project was a deeply rewarding moment. But what has surprised her most was the support she received after sharing the book.
“Friends from high school I hadn’t talked to in years reached out to congratulate me and buy the book,” she says. “It was really heartwarming to see how supportive people were.”
She has since shared the book with her own students.
“I thought about how inspiring it would have been for me when I was their age to see a teacher do something like that,” she says. “If even one student feels motivated to pursue something creative because of it, that’s really meaningful.”
Today, creativity remains central to both her personal life and her teaching practice. When teaching English (perhaps unsurprisingly, her favourite subject) she often incorporates imaginative writing and creative projects into the classroom.
“When you’re passionate about something, students can tell,” she says. “I think they see more of my personality when I’m teaching writing and creative work.”
She is already thinking about her next book—based on a quirky story she wrote as a child.
“It’s such a random story,” she laughs. “But because I came up with it when I was young, I think it could really connect with kids.”
She’s also considering how she can translate her books into French, or write a new one in French. For now, she’s enjoying the moment of having completed her first book.
“It took many years,” she says. “But finishing it reminded me that sometimes the things we care about most just take time.”