Futures and such

It's been about a year since I graduated from college, so pardon the minute or two I'm going to take for self-reflection...

I haven't been kind to this blog recently. Updates have been less and less frequent, and when I do update, it's generally whining about how hideous and terrible customers/people on the streets have been.

Sad to say, when you work with tourists, at least 45% of your conversation is occupied by whining about customers and how much you hate your job. And when you're a cyclist, at least 50% of your conversation is devoted to bitching about how much better you are than everyone else on the road--including pedestrians. That leaves only 5% for topics such as--oh, I don't know--world politics, the economy, what other people are up to, future aspirations and goals...so to be fair, I haven't had much to say these past few months.

There's this little bubble of hope in my chest that promises I'll find another job soon. It's not so much that the job sucks as the frustration that comes with having been in the same spot for a year since graduation. My job search has been less-than full-throttle, and I seem to lack the luck that some folks have had in landing something that pays halfway decently.

Then again--part of me sees some of my friends in positions that truly, truly suck with bosses that are truly, truly incompetent assholes, and I don't feel like I have it so bad. DC also seems to be full of positions that sound really good, but in actuality--aren't. It's lots of people wanting to make a difference caught up in a bureaucratic whirl. At least I harbor no delusions about my own in the rat race. I'm just another rat--albeit one who rides a bike.

So that all being said...I need to go back to school. Badly. And I need to move away from this city. I've struggled back and forth with getting a business degree in sustainable tourism management, going for a PhD in library and information sciences (still on the list), and going to school for anthropology. My goal for right now? To get into UBC's socio-cultural anthropology program, and to bike across the continent to get to Vancouver.

I was looking to buy a new bike recently, and when I ticked off the different bikes I was looking at to my coworker (including a single speed, a 3-speed townie bike, a road bike, and a touring/commmuter bike), he said "It sounds like you don't know what you want." It's the same thing with grad schools...all the subjects that I've thought about would work in one way or another, but it's a matter of honing in on the right one.

It may be taking me longer than most folks...but I'll get there. Eventually.