a bit of time

Something excellent that I’ve realized over the last year: I’ve got time.

I usually consider my birthdays to be checkpoints in determining where I am relative to where I want to be, blah, blah. It’s all quite analytical and can be a little off-putting. I’ve primarily concerned myself in my early twenties with making a career, which has resulted in a lot of moving around to take advantage of various opportunities: I’ve bounced from Edmonton to Toronto back to Edmonton back to Toronto to Seattle and back to Toronto again in the last five years. I don’t regret that though. I’ve had some great jobs, I’ve learned a ton, and I’ve met some awesome people along the way.

Now that I have all that tricky but necessary stuff in place, I think I’ve got some time now to be less concerned about my career. Most people shake their head in bewilderment when they find that I gave up my cozy software engineering job and the winnings of a recent promotion to go to grad school. After all, an M.Sc. says nothing about how well you can build software. The countless terrible job interviews I’ve conducted with candidates with grad degrees certainly makes that clear. Also, most unfortunately, grad school stipends don’t come with restricted stock units. So am I f***ing crazy?

It depends on your perspective. The condo with reclaimed wood flooring and the golden retriever will have to wait, but I’m more than fine with that. I’m only 25 and I’ve got the rest of my life to work. For now, I’m engaging myself in some creative refreshment.

As far as the last year went relative to previous ones, I’m pretty sure last year tops the list. For a number of reasons, I wasn’t fully committed to Seattle when I first moved there, but a year ago I threw all that away and met a bunch of great new friends, reconnected with old ones, and spent a lot of time with someone who kind of set the bar for me in terms of what a great relationship is supposed to be like. Alas, I gave some of those things up to go to Toronto. I just might go back, but who knows. I’ve vowed to commit myself fully to Toronto in the mean time. A year from now I’ll be sailing to the finish line of my M.Sc. and I’ll have my pick of directions to go after that. I like this turning 25 thing so far.