turning
I’ve been having a rotten time recently. A lot of it has to do with being in school. It turns out I failed a class last year (I had a B incomplete that I thought was a regular B so I didn’t follow up on a missed assignment). And the class this summer is not exactly proceeding on schedule.
The fact that I’m letting my performance in school take a down-turn is important in of itself, but what I really hate is that it means I don’t let myself work on anything else because it’s “procrastination” to work on anything that I enjoy -like IleSansFil, a bunch of amazing side-projects I want to do, or on getting more contracts for project managment.
It’s been making me think of my experience at Queens, where I quit the varsity hockey team in order to focus on school. The end result: dropping out anyways *and* losing a sport that I loved.
So I was daydreaming about taking the fall off. I’ve been doing school part-time (3 classes) and working for 2 years now. And because I went to prep-school in the States instead of cegep I’m stuck in a 4-year program instead of three years and have another 2 years left of part-time until I get my bachelors.
And then I get this email last night on one of the lists I’m on:
“IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development) is currently accepting applications for six-month international placements in the Emerging Leaders for Governance program for 2005-2006. IISD will place five Canadians aged 19-30 (exceptions may apply) on six-month terms with organizations, working on e-governance issues.” The positions available are:
-Hungary
-Bhutan
-Washington
-Bulgaria
-Kenya
A few of the actual jobs look pretty boring in terms of my experience (Bulgaria and Hungary both look like the main job is to setting up, filling, and maintaining a CMS) and the Washington with the World Bank looks like it might be a stretch for me in terms of my actual experience researching and writing reports (although I have good experience of the field of ICT4D).
In any case, I’ll be applying to one of them. It’s almost decently paid, it will look good on my C.V., but most importantly, I want to be doing it. And I _will_not_ being taking any classes this fall term.
ahh - that feels much better
July 1st, 2005 at 6:18 pm
You gotta do what you gotta do.
You might find this odd considering how often we speak etc but I was actually shocked to find out that you were still in school. I honestly couldn’t see the value for someone like yourself who is not only doing so much amazing stuff, so much more stuff than anyone else I know in town - in, out or after university - and who is so obviously moving at light speed to places even PhDs only dream of… to spend a single second in something as mundane as a university classroom.
Go get ‘em buddy.
July 2nd, 2005 at 4:44 pm
bhutan is a truly amazing place and if you get the chance you should go.
July 4th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
The problem with school is that it seems never ending and often extremely pointless (as it in fact may be). But it serves as a form of currency and unfortunately we often need that currency to take us where we need to go. Just hang in there… the end of the road is not far off.
July 5th, 2005 at 11:44 am
hey Sarah! Nice to see you here.
1) I’m fairly sure that I don’t need that particular currency to get me where I want to go. You only need those type of impersonal qualifications or accreditations in cases where your reputation doesn’t extend that far, or where it is ignored because of bureaucratic structure of the employing organization. But it would help in those cases.
2) I would like to finish up. I’ve gotten so far already. But I do need a break.