Looking back, looking forward

Okay Dave, this one's for you...

So I never really intended to blog on my summer because I've never blogged while at home. But then I moved to Calgary. However, I was too busy and unmotivated to blog there. But also, I've realized that sufficiently enough of my friends now live far away from beautiful Edmonton Alberta to warrant it. And, since I told Dave to post and he did, and how he's asked, I owe it to him and all you globetrotters (a group I will soon again be a part of).

Looking back:

Most of you have heard me complain about my summer job this year, but for those of you who haven't, I'll spare you details and keep it brief. I jumped into a middle management position with Statistics Canada for the 2006 Census of Canada. I was a Field Operations Supervisor, looking after about 17,000 square miles of South-East Central Alberta (that estimate is very rough, but when you've only got Google Earth, you do the best you can). And that was divided into a number of areas, so at my peak I was managing 14 people, each of whom had their own team working in one of the areas. Anyways, the bottom line is that I worked a lot, was on a salary so didn't get overtime (though I did get a bonus near the end but it definately didn't cover it all) and found Calgary quite lonely as I really didn't have time to make a life. I did make a friend through work, Rhonda is a pretty cool person. And some of my friends (John, Jeremy, Mark) came down in that order to come and visit me and stay for a little while. Which was awesome. I also made it up to Edmonton a few weekends.

The highlights of the job were mostly two fold: experience and work ethic. I got supervisory experience in a big way - interviewing, hiring, training, managing, firing people. And I learned how to work hard, so hopefully Grad school won't be too much of a shock.

The lowlights were the long hours, the high stress, the loneliness and missing out on my last summer here.

But I'm back (I actually worked the last 3 weeks out of Edmonton, as I took a contract extension to make a bit more cash, to carry the job as far as I could until I had to get back to school, and to help finish up, since we were way behind, because stupid Canadians don't do their census forms!).

Other comments on the summer...

Oilers playoff run. Very exciting. Got to go to games, thanks to dad. Game 6 of Stanley Cup finals with Jer was absolutely out of this world (you may have seen us as we made the highlights behind a huge hit by the Oilers). Shame we didn't win the Cup.

Went camping only twice this summer, but what lacked in quantity was made up for by quality. Over Canada Day long weekend, Jeremy and I put about 100km on a canoe he got from work as we paddled from near Drayton Valley to Devon. (Thanks mom for driving). We just camped along the river where we could, enjoyed the peace, enjoyed the heat and cooled off by swimming and dumping the canoe :)

Camping trip number two was this past weekend out to Rochon Sands at Buffalo Lake. There was great irony in this as this area fell within my census territory and it was a huge problem chile area with work needing to be done, redone and complications throughout which cause me and everyone else large headaches. But it was a sweet trip, with Bethany, Kasha, Monique and Heather kindly putting up with Mark, Cam, Jeremy and myself. It was a very relaxing trip, just drove out there, ate a lot, sauntered over to the beach and back. And tos of fun, so much laughing and goofing off. We got some rain but even that was fun, especially when the thunderstorm was right overhead and the lighting was so close your eyes were illuminated even when looking straight down and the thunder was instantanteous and deafening.

After working so hard, not working is sweet.

Looking forward:

Two weeks, one day until I board a plan for Los Angeles International Airport. I've been thinking of this time at Fuller as going away for school. It's not really that. I need a bit of a mindset shift. I'm moving to Southern California for (at least) 6years, it's a totally new life direction, and I don't know if/when I'm coming back, who'll be here when I do, and what all our/their lives will be like. Masters/Ph.D. programs are different, they don't have your 4 month summers to come home to. It's gonna be good, but It's gonna be bigger than I realized, it's only barely starting to hit me. It's increasing my sadness as it does. I'm still learning about what is all going to be involved and that's a slow process, I think I'll figure most of it out down there as I go.

But I know that I have to go, have to grow. It'll really the be the first true, true, on my own experience. Living at Norm's, moving to Egypt, living in Calgary, they don't quite count. It's hard to place this in the bigger picture of life, but in a 70 year lifetime, 6 years is less than 10%. And it's just time. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Most of these realizations I haven't shared directly with anyone so I read them before I tell you, it's nothing personal, it's just that they are very, very recent (including coming as I type).

But I must also look forward to the positives. I'm gonna meet a lot of cool people (and here's hoping that includes a fantastic and gorgeous girl to spend the rest of my life with!). I'm gonna gain a whole lot of new skills. I'm going to be humbled because I'm gonna struggle with the adjustment. I'm hoping for a clearer sense of direction and calling for my life.

So there you go Dave, and the rest of the world. I'm not sure if I post again before I travel. And once I go, I'll do my best to post while I'm gone, but we all know how it can go. I don't know what my schedule, my life, will be like when I get there, so we'll see what we can do.

Adam