I know I'm done with school. At least, I'm pretty sure I'm done with school. At the smart people conference this weekend someone asked me if I'd ever thought about archiving. No, I've never thought about myself or anyone else archiving. I wrote it down though and reminded myself to look it up.
I'm undergraduated and working at my post-university job. It's not my future career, it's a stepping stone of experience and income. For the past few months I've been saying that I'd like to get into elections, ideally provincial. It was a conclusion that I'm surprised I didn't come to earlier. I love elections. I love why we have them, I love that we have them, and I love that we can vote however we choose in them without being afraid of retribution. You hear it all the time but it's so true: we are so lucky that we can vote in this country. Women, men, Christians, atheists, whatever. And the best part is our vote counts for something. Sure the single member plurality system isn't ideal but it's democratic.
Although I love elections I want to keep my options open. It's hard to get a job, especially one that you like, and I'm not going to delude myself into assuming that every position I get is going to be a good fit. The past few months have definitely reinforced that point in my mind. So I looked up being an archivist.
Yeah, I don't think it's a career path for me. It requires a masters. Because I'm practical I looked up which Canadian universities offer it. UBC does, which isn't far, and the rest are all way far away. If it was offered in Alberta I might consider it but it's a big commitment for something I really don't know a lot about. Not only that, I don't have the grades to get into the program. I'm really close so I'm sure if I worked hard enough I could do it, but it would be a struggle. I also googled what kind of people archivists are and found an academic journal entry written on the subject. I almost fell asleep reading the first page. I clearly don't have it in me to go back. I wish an undergraduate degree could open more doors.
It's funny, I always say that being married hasn't held me back from anything but the decisions I make really are based on my marriage. I don't think I'd move to Vancouver for school or a job but Alberta would be okay because of the journeyman mechanic's wage. Where Karl and I are at in our lives also has an impact on the choices I make about my future. I don't want to go back to school for several reasons, but one of them is financial. We're making some big purchases that I don't want to jeopardize. Disneyland, a tool box, and, hopefully someday, eye surgery.
I've been with Karl since I was 18 so I have no idea if without him I'd be happy to up and relocate across the country or not, but I know that now I wouldn't do that nearly as lightly. I guess there's a difference from being held back and making choices with another person in mind.
One thing's for sure, I would have to love something to go back to school for it.
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