The road less cycled

I’ve recently gotten a Twitter account. That means I’m now connected into to Facebook, Twitter, MSN Messenger, Skype,  and right here at WordPress. Never mind that I rarely use MSN, Skype, or Twitter,  and only rarely use this blog of late. This seems like definite overkill – do I really need to be that wired in?

So I just thought I’d put a quick post here for those of you who still land here now and again. Quick, but guaranteed to be better than Twitter, which is basically Facebook status blurbs on disability.

Briefly, I’ve decided that I’ll almost certainly finish my degree here at UFV. Yeah, yeah. Booooring….

I’ve been pretty frustrated by university lately. I really have no patience to sit in lab being instructed about how to draw a graph. I’ve only been fed that drivel since Grade 8. I think I should either know that by know, or be resigned to never learning. Be clear, be precise, and you’re good.

There are definitely more scintillating, titillating, and engaging aspects to campus life than that. However, 2 more years of this appears ominously stifling. But because I have invested so much into it (getting on 15k now), and because there is value in having a degree as well as freedom in pursuing higher levels of thinking without constraints, yet, I’m going to suck it up for a couple years, hopefully buckle down, and do my best to skip town at every opportunity. Besides which, I’ve a family here that needs me.

UFV’s got a good Geography program. It’s a university now as opposed to a University-College. The program is well-regarded, and can be complemented by a Master’s, PhD, or perhaps BCIT Fisheries & Wildlife or Forestry. I’ve got roots here too. Just have to learn to give some people what I’ll term the “warm shoulder” when I meet them in the hallway – a polite, “Hey, how are you” without a full blown conversation ensuing. I do, after all, have to get something done…consider yourself forewarned.

Aside from the University,  Abbotsford’s a good place to be. I can get around ridiculously cheap, yet quick enough to get my things done. There is a new community garden, a thriving, vibrant Farmer’s Market, developing bicycle infrastructure, and a transit system that will get you most places, especially in tandem with a bike.  In short, all the things I love. There’s a bit of wilderness here and there – Sumas Mountain, but also the Chilliwack River Valley, and with a car rented for the odd weekend or a Greyhound Bus, the rest of the province is plenty accessible – it’s more finding the time that’s the issue. Heck, on transit not even Van. is far away, the odd time that I need to go there.

So yeah, this city’s got most of what I need, and is close enough to what I don’t have. The car-free lifestyle, though not easy, is very feasible. Sure, I want to find myself in Hasselt, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tasmania, Nagasaki, Holland, and more. That’ll happen. Not without some kind of a foundation however. Fall of 2011 is when that should be over with, in the form of a BSc, if I can bite the bullet, yank back on the reins, and put a bottle-cap on that wanderlust.

Only question is, how much do I like soup? To breathe, I mean?