Last 10 days have been nuts. Flew home on the long weekend, came back to Prince George for a day, and was off again to Quesnel and Likely. Back for a day and drove to Smithers for the weekend to clear my head. Came back yesterday and I'm off again to Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge until Friday. I plan on staying put this weekend and just relax.
So I went to Smithers to clear my head... have been really unhappy for 2 reasons: leaving northern BC in 4 weeks and school. The time spent in Vancouver made me realize how much I love the wilderness up here... especially the animals - moose, deer, black bears, grizzly bears and wolves.
The main reason though, was school. I register in 2 days and have been looking at course schedules the past 2 weeks. The more I look at it I realized that my "Geography - Environmental Specialty" major conflicts with my Asia-Canada minor. Courses conflicting could postpone another year of graduation.
I spoke with the Director of Asia-Canada program, Yoshi, who I've relied heavily for mentorship past 2 years. He suggested I drop my minor and concentrate on getting my major done... a degree is a degree he says. Then I kept thinking about what Alex said about the Asia-Pacific Initiative - how Asia-Pacific is her passion (she did Masters of Asia-Pacific International Relations in Australia). Reminded me how much I love this stuff... so dropping my minor is not an option.
This Environmental Specialty program... what a bastard program. As the name suggests, it is very specialized. I still need courses from Geography, STAT, Resource & Environmetal Management and Environmental Science departments. The 4 programs together conflict with Asia-Canada... no matter how I arranged the courses there were problems.
So I made a compromise - I'm dropping out and switching to the regular Geography degree in order to keep my minor. This means 4 less courses to take and no conflicts. In my mind, I've already taken the important courses from Enviromental Specialty program such as Human Ecology and Institutions Management... I don't want to deal with the other bullshit courses such as GIS II and Environmental Science. I'm interested in Policy... and policy courses I've already taken.
I feel like I have taken a bit of a blow, not finish what I set out to do. But I think this is what's best. I also have more freedom to take what I want to... like taking Geog 468 - Society and Environment in China.
So I know 100% when I'm graduating folks... Fall of 2007 with 10 courses to go. Industry people in Asia, Canada and US... be prepared for when I finish. The new job in Sept for MABC is just the beginning... got my eyes set on Foreign Affairs Canada. I will also be mastering my native language Mandarin when the time is right... That I have not forgotten.
Posted by Jay at July 10, 2006 09:18 PMI will support you and lead your armies to absolute victory ONLY if you establish a reign of perfect justice, whereby the only law which is allowed to stand is that law which defends the rights of individuals. All other law is perversion and mush be expunged!
Posted by: The Jackal at July 10, 2006 10:18 PMcool man, yeah, I'd probably be ready to get out of school too. It'll be great when you actually get your degree.... I actually need to be going to pick mine up here pretty soon, nearly forgotten about it with all the rushing I've been doing.
Hope you'll get a good breather and some rest time in.
Posted by: Jonathan at July 11, 2006 11:19 AMCongrats, Jay. I know you must be dying to get done with school. When it lingers on and on it can be a bit taxing. I guess I will just have to take over where you left off as I am, more or less, planning to head to grad school in the Fall of 2007.
Posted by: jen at July 15, 2006 11:12 AM