Hello! My name is Ryan Wightman and I was born on the unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh peoples, also known as Prince George. I lived there for one year and then moved to my mother’s home town of Prince Rupert. Which is the unceded territory of the Ts’msyen and Smalgyax speaking peoples. I have lived in Prince Rupert for most of my life.
I personally was indifferent about school, it wasn’t my favourite but I also did not hate it. It was mostly a good way for me to see friends. I never cared about getting good grades, just enough to pass. I used to be extremely introverted outside of hanging out with friends. I was terrified of things like presenting or reading aloud in class. Especially presenting, my leg used to shake like crazy standing up in front of the class.
It wasn’t until I joined drama class in high school that I began to come out of my shell. I truly believe this is because my drama teacher made such a profound impact on my life. In this class I began to become braver and braver and eventually mustered up the courage to audition for the school musical Beauty and the Beast. I have never sung in front of anyone till this point so I assumed (and hoped) I would get an ensemble role like a fork. Somehow I landed the role of Gaston the villain of the story. This musical change my life, I have never felt so free and myself before this moment. After this I auditioned every year for school musicals and would luckily land lead characters.
After High school I was lost on what I wanted to do for a career. I have a fairly large family in Prince Rupert and they are all trades people. I am not a trades person but because I did not know what else to do I took my first year plumbing coarse just in case. It was during this course I decided I should try and chase my dreams of being an actor and apply for Vancouver Film School. I truly think I only got accepted because my drama teacher wrote an impressive reference letter. I went took two different acting courses at that school both were for active for film, television, and voice roles, a 4-month essentials class and a 1-year intensive. I had a blast at that school despite being incredibly broke due to the expense of the tuition and the cost of living in Vancouver (there are no dorms at VFS, you have to rent a place).
Now, while my dream was to be an actor I chose to move back to Prince Rupert to start saving money again with the goal of going back to Vancouver in the future. That ended up being a good choice as right after I moved home the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With everything being locked down with no end in sight I decided to shift my career path. I thought to myself, who are the most influential people in my life outside of my grandparents. Every single person I could think of were teachers, my drama teacher, choir teacher, English teacher, French teacher, and many acting teachers. This made me realize that the best job for me in a town full of trades is teaching. So, I went back to school at the college in Prince Rupert, and lo and behold I met two more teachers that I will never forget.
I took classes in Rupert for two years and transferred to UNBC in Prince George for two years. During my schooling I started working as an on-call Educational Assistant on days off from school and after university semesters. After school in Prince George I moved back to Prince Rupert to save some money and take online classes. During this time I got extremely lucky and was able to become an uncertified TTOC. This has been by far the best job I have ever had. I have worked at a fish cannery, paper delivery, McDonalds, Safeway, Costco (in Vancouver), Home hardware, and as mentioned before an EA. No matter how bad of a day I might have as a TTOC, it is still better than my best day at any of my other jobs. I also landed a grade 2/3 class for half a year replacing someone on leave. It was a touch class but I never dreaded going back the next day.
I have been working as an uncertified teacher for a couple of years now and I can say it is a job that I truly love. That is why I am incredibly excited and grateful that the UNBC regional BEd is taking place in Prince Rupert, along with Terrace and Quesnel. I cannot wait to get my certification and become a teacher that my students need like my drama teacher, and so many others were to me.
I made a video that better goes into detail about my family history and how they came to Canada. Here is the link to that video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drI0xOgvJY0
Also these are my two boys who have been my emotional rock throughout my schooling Journey!
This is Azriel (aka Azzy), I adopted him in Prince George in 2021. He is a sweet baby angel.
This is Rowan, I adopted him to keep Azzy company in 2025. He can be a psychotic demon, but is usually a sweet angel as well.
They cuddle sometimes!