Take the plunge
Dare the Mighty Deed
That seems to be the theme of my life at the moment. Why? Because on returning to Winnipeg, I find myself suddenly pushed to go west and look for work. In two weeks I am off to Vancouver to look for work. I may be back in a month, but Lord willing, I'll find a job and a place to stay. For the moment I'll be staying with a few friends of a friend who are willing to put me up for a couple of weeks. Look out couch, here I come. It's pretty scary. I really want to find work doing graphic design or working at a print shop straight away, but failing that, anything. And then a place to stay if I can get work. Hoo boy.
I was talking to a friend who was telling me about doing rappelling every day in basic training.
He said that of course you know you trust your harness, and the ropes, and the guys below, and you know it's safe. Even so, when you stand at the top and get ready to go over, you feel something like, "This is stupid. There's no way I should be doing this." And then you do it. Because of course you are going to do it. But that fear still jumps up and tries to slap you in the face. That's where I'm at right now. I'm going to do it, I know I'm going to do it, I know it's safe and that all that can come from this experience is positive, but there's risk, and its scary.
But for me, it is time to dare the mighty deed, to do the very thing I am afraid to do. Even if it seems stupid.
No Time
Visiting Julie in Hawaii was amazing. I am back in Winnipeg, but I have no time to make a proper post yet. And at this rate, it probably won't happen.
What's the Worst That Could Happen?
So Phil got me this worst case scenario daily survival calendar, and this is the one for tomorrow, the day I fly to Hawaii. At least I'm going via San Francisco, rather than via Los Angeles. Crazy coincidence or grim forboding? You decide!
Today I sent an email to some friends back in Japan, and as I was writing it I realised that it would also be appropriate as a blog post. So here is the section trimmed out of the email, posted on-line for all of your enjoyment, if you haven't heard it all before.
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As for myself, It's been an unusual few months. I've applied and become an
associate member of the GDC (society of Graphic Designers of Canada), but it
will take me maybe a year to get myself to a point where I could become a
full member. I need to do more real work first, and pass a portfolio review.
I did have some leads on jobs before the holidays, but they all fell
through, so now i start the application process all over again.
I've been going twice a month to the Japanese Cultural Center in town to sit
and chat with people in Japanese, so I don't lose it. More than that, until
midway through December, I'd spent a bunch of time hanging out with Dion and
Ayumi. Do you remember Dion? He taught in Naruto for three years,
leaving as Julie arrived. He's from Winnipeg. But now they've moved away. He
couldn't get into med school in canada, even after two years of trying, but
he did get accepted to a school on a tiny dutch island in the carribean. Not
to shabby. From the sounds of it it's got its ups and downs. They left just
a few weeks ago. I was sad to see them go.
Christmas and New Year's and the holidays in between were pretty good. My
best friend was in from the west of canada, and my sister in from the east,
and I hadn't seen either of them since coming back to Canada, so that made
for some great times. But it wasn't Christmas that I'd been looking forward
to this year. My sister left today, and I get to leave this Friday. Where
to? I'm going to visit Julie in Hawaii! I'm so excited. It's only for ten
days, but I haven't seen her in almost six months, so that's way better than
nothing. To quote Coldplay, "Nobody said it was easy, nobody said that it
would be so hard;" the long-distance thing is strange but we compensate as
best we can by talking a lot.
We've been using the program
Skype to talk for free on the phone a la the
internet. My days have been spent in a mix of a few things: painting houses
or businesses to keep money in my pocketses, doing some kind of design work
(for myself, mostly) to hone my skills, and either hoping to talk to julie,
or doing so. We'd both rather be able to talk to each other every day, but
life and time zones make that difficult. Some weeks we get to talk nearly
every day, other weeks it seems like only once or twice. But in just four
sleeps I'm off to visit her! Hooray! I've been counting down the days since
I bought the ticket 86 days ago.
I guess that's pretty much where I've been at the last while.
Looking forward to hearing back from you,
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Fletcher
