Not sure how much longer I can do landscaping. I started landscaping as a career 20 some odd years ago. I was never supposed to be in landscaping. I was supposed to be a computer engineer.
In 1990 I enrolled in engineering at UBC. It was the only school and only faculty I applied to. I figured it was meant to be, of course I’d be accepted. And I was. I was one of four hundred seventy-nine first year students in engineering.
I had wanted to take a year off of school. Of course I didn’t want to work during that year, I wanted to relax. I felt pressured to continue on with school. Whether I was pressured or not is unclear, but I felt it. So, I went. I went into 35 hours a week of class time, 3 hours a day of commuting, and a minimum of 3 hours of homework a night.
I was not a homework kind of student. I was used to teachers. You know, people that teach. Not professors. Professors do not teach – they profess. This was completely new to me. I was severely blessed through school of having great teachers. Many of them left lasting imprints on me. One of them even reads my blog (that I know of anyway) and he knew I didn’t do homework.
I learned almost everything from just being shown once or twice. If the direction was right for me, homework was useless. I knew how to do it, I didn’t need to repeat it over and over ad nauseum. Sure my grades suffered a little from not doing it, but I generally got high marks on tests. And I had a high enough GPA to get me into UBC Engineering.
I did not have any good teachers at UBC. Not one. We lucked out by having a 4th year calculus professor (who, literally, wrote the text book) teach his first ever 1st year class. And he was the only memorable one. The toll of the commute, the class time, and just the overall stress of everything got to me pretty quick.
In a blaze of glory, I frequented the arcade to play pool or arcade games. I drank occasionally, as engineers are wont to do. And I pretty much failed everything except computer science where I actually got 84%.
The only good thing to come out of UBC was a great friendship.
My next plan was electrical engineering technology. It was a way to get some credits towards electrical engineering, in a less stressful environment. And it was working great. I was top in the class for the first semester. I think I was averaging around 98%. And then I didn’t have any money for second semester. I tried to borrow it from a few people – and didn’t have the wherewithal to get a student loan.
With no money to continue, I didn’t write my finals. I still passed 4 of the courses, and I think I got 74% in computer science.
I saw a trend with computer science, so my next thing was to try computer programming. But first, I did a summer at the City of Surrey in the engineering dept (of all things). It was a terrible job, and I hated it immensely. There was zero job satisfaction. But it got me money. Which I then wasted, and wound up needing $9000 in student loans to go to the next school.
I took Computer Programming and Systems Analysis at CDI (Career Development Institute). I loved the program. I excelled at it. I had already self taught myself the computer language C, and I quickly found that most programming languages were fundamentally the same, just with different nouns and verbs. I got my certificate with a 96% average.
I started to look for work. This was at the height of the IT boom. Everybody I tried was looking for people with experience for junior positions. I was needing money. I wound up getting a job with a landscape company. I had some experience, working for my uncle, and my grandfather, and the city job. I figured it would just be temporary, and I’d keep looking for a programming job.
I never looked for a programming job after getting hired. I fell into a rut and stayed there for 20 years. I thought I liked the job. What I liked though, was being good, really good, at something. I was able to teach new workers, and could pretty much work with little or no supervision. I was fast at my job too. Then the injuries started.
First I severed my left posterior cruciate ligament. Then I wound up with 3 different muscle tears in my right leg. Recurring lower back pain. Recurring elbow pain in both elbows. Recurring rib subluxtions. Separated left shoulder. And a host of other minor things. And throw a lack of testosterone on top of that for good measure.
I am no longer fast. I think I’m still good – but being good usually comes with a price of pain. For a while I was seeing a chiropractor, a registered massage therapist, and a physiotherapist every month for a few years. Just to keep me going and not missing more than a day here and there.
I’m a creative and artistic person at heart. Which is weird because engineers were always feuding with arts students. I was of both worlds. At times there were opportunities to be creative at work. Those seem to all be gone now. I’m left doing mostly maintenance. The type of landscaping I enjoy the least.
That not only takes its toll physically, but mentally as well. I am drained.
I’ve started to think about changing careers, and how to go about doing that.
At this point in my life, I can’t afford to go back to school for long. It will either have to be night school/continuing education or at most one year of full time study.
My ideal choice, is to make a go of being a photographer. Unfortunately, that isn’t realistic at this point. I could take courses, and do portraiture to make money, but that’s a tough road to go down, and that’s not really the photography I want to do. I like landscapes and flora and fauna.
My second choice is one that I’ve been told, over and over again, that I’d be great at. Counselling. I’ve always liked the idea of teaching, mentoring, or counselling. This blog exists partly because of those ideas.
So, at some point, I will start working towards that goal. I still don’t know what, entirely, that looks like. Whether I will be on my own, or working for some entity. Probably the latter to start with either way. Still not sure which school, or route I will go. It looks like Social Service Worker is a 1 year course pretty much everywhere. Rather obviously, I would like to specialize in LGBT issues, with a big focus on the T.
I felt a lot better when I decided I would finally change careers. My life is full of upheaval and change. This is a change I really need to make. It’s almost scarier than transition.