Kaylee Billyboy has no regrets becoming a secondary school teacher.
“I love every minute of it,” the 26-year-old said of her job at Columneetza Secondary School where she has taught English and Social Studies for two years.
Teaching 13 and 14-year-olds makes for a busy day, but in the end all the good balances it out, she added.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I couldn’t see myself going into any other profession and pursued my dream right after high school.”
Born in Prince George, she moved to Williams Lake with her parents Brigette Peel and Evans Billyboy when she was four years old.
Growing up she did gymkhanas, competed in Little Britches Rodeos and then in BCRA events.
In 2017, she was crowned Williams Lake Stampede Queen, an experience she does not regret.
“It gave me a lot of confidence in who I am and who I can become. It also gave me that connection piece in Williams Lake.”
Often after the first day with a new class, students will return the next day and say their parents told them she was the Stampede Queen.
“Sometimes they have a photograph of me with them when they were younger and it’s very interesting to see because some of them get quite excited and say, ‘I’ve known you forever.’”
Another hat she wears is that of a basketball coach.
Basketball runs in the family, with her mom also growing up playing the game and coaching.
She attended her first basketball camp in Grade 2, which was pretty young, but her mom played basketball growing up as well so she was raised around the game, just like rodeo, she said.
“We had the Steve Nash basketball program through the city on Saturdays and we’d go to drop-ins for that.”
By Grade 4 she was on her first school team and played every year while in school, with her mom as head coach or assistant coach of the teams.
After high school graduation, while she was taking her first year at Thompson Rivers University Williams Lake Campus, she coached Grade 7 basketball.
Once she left for TRU in Kamloops she stopped coaching until she started working at Columneetza and resumed coaching Grade 7.
This year she moved up to coach Grade 8 and hopes to continue with the team.
She also hopes to coach the U14 girls team for the Williams Lake Minor Basketball Association which started up last year.
For life/work balance she said she invests outside her work life with things she loves to do, such as Indigenous beading, sewing and riding her horse Cinnabar in the warmer seasons.