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Do you wish you were something else in life?


Pierre the Great

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Take a deep breath. Give up on school for now, get a job. Work your ass off at said job and pinch and save every damn penny. When you have enough for a move, find a place in Canada where you think you'd like to be. (Vancouver is ridiculously expensive.) Research, research, research. Find a job in said locale. Move to said locale. (Go through all the governmental nonsense in the process - talk about a headache.) Work your ass of and save every damn penny until you've got enough to head back to school. Take another deep breath. Apply to college/university and start your life anew.

You could say that again. There's a very good reason why I'm attending school on the Island.

Always remember young man, you are a Habs fan now, that puts you among the elite of the earth. We are like the knights templer only with more cups.

Considering what happened to the Knights Templar, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that comparison. Why not just re-name ourselves the Hindenburg or something... :wacko:

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thats so true !! I could even get you a good contact for a job and an appartment. edmonton also has a great university.

Honestly, if you do go the Alberta route, go to U of C. I know plenty of people who decided to take the trip up to E-Town to attend U of A and they ALL regret it. Apparently U of C has much better facilities, we're actually a rising University, becoming one of the best in Canada (they actually have one of the top nursing schools and engineering schools. Only reason I know that is because my sister is a nurse and her husband is an engineer).

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If you want to move to Canada, and go tho University or tech college, consider moving to Edmonton. It is very easy to get employment there, high paying if you are a worker. After you are there a few years and your residence is established you could get gov't assistance and go to school. 30 is not too old to complete your degree.

If we're talking about gov't assistance and people find that attractive, then I heartily recommend moving to the Northwest Territories. We have easily the best Student Financial Assistance program in Canada (it is separate from Canada Student Loans); once you've become a Canadian citizen/landed immigrant and have lived in the NWT for a year, you are guaranteed a $47,000 lifetime loan limit, maximum $1,100 per month. And those figures are likely to go up rather than down.

Alberta in general is humming. There are a bunch of schools in Calgary too (Mount Royal, SAIT, U of Calgary), and employment is just as easy to find there as it is in Edmonton (there are "help wanted" signs everywhere). Even Fort McMurray... I mean, it's kind of a shithole, but they are in desperate need of people for jobs (the city is growing at an absolutely ridiculous pace), and it is home to Keyano College.

Honestly, if you do go the Alberta route, go to U of C. I know plenty of people who decided to take the trip up to E-Town to attend U of A and they ALL regret it. Apparently U of C has much better facilities, we're actually a rising University, becoming one of the best in Canada (they actually have one of the top nursing schools and engineering schools. Only reason I know that is because my sister is a nurse and her husband is an engineer).

Ah, the anti-Edmonton propaganda....you wouldn't be from Calgary, would you? :D

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Well, yeah, Edmonton does suck but I wasn't being intentionally anti-Edmonton there. It's just been getting so many complaints lately while U of C is on the rise. SAIT is decent and MRC is ok (just, it's a two hour bus ride from where I live while U of C is only an hour).

You're right though, theres pretty much a battle between Edmonton and Calgary in terms of finding work. I read an article the other day in the Calgary Sun about why Calgary needs workers more then Edmonton. :lol:

As for my origin, born and raised in Calgary. Couldn't be more proud of where I'm from. B)

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Well, yeah, Edmonton does suck but I wasn't being intentionally anti-Edmonton there. It's just been getting so many complaints lately while U of C is on the rise. SAIT is decent and MRC is ok (just, it's a two hour bus ride from where I live while U of C is only an hour).

You're right though, theres pretty much a battle between Edmonton and Calgary in terms of finding work. I read an article the other day in the Calgary Sun about why Calgary needs workers more then Edmonton. :lol:

As for my origin, born and raised in Calgary. Couldn't be more proud of where I'm from. B)

I personally enjoy like Calgary better than Edmonton. Much, much more actually. My sister lives in Calgary, I'm a semi-frequent visitor now. Couldn't be happier about that.

But considering the gigantic sums of money being pumped into U of A by both the Government of Alberta and by private donors, it seems more likely that U of A is ready to achieve international renown and is far from being in decline. I mean... U of A is just throwing money around like it's nothing (they offered to give me full scholarships for both my BA and MA, and I know many more people with similar stories) and are attracting tons of top flight academics and researchers. I'm not saying that U of C isn't a good school, because it is, and I'm not saying that U of C isn't superior to U of A for certain programs, but I'd wait a while before putting U of C and U of A on the same level.

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Oh yeah, I'm not saying U of C is better RIGHT NOW because it isn't.

I think in 5 or so years though you'll see a definite change.

And I know this is off-topic but out of curiosity, any certain part of Calgary you enjoy? I live way up in the Northwest, area called Hidden Valley.

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Well, guys, I'm 56 (soon 57) and I'd say that statistically, I'm about 3/4 through my lifespan.

There's many things I wish I could have done or 'been' but there you go. I'm disappointed but not really down about it all. I know that my situation is the same for all people who have ever lived... we all live lives that have not been up to what we want or wanted to be. It's not possible that they could ever be.

Good grief, we're mortal and our aspirations extend beyond the limits of our mortality. It's only someone who's totally at peace with her/his situation that doesn't struggle with that. A guy called Paul wrote that he learned to be satisfied with where he was at, with what he had and didn't have. He was happy because his source of satisfaction wasn't in those areas.

Now, most if not almost all of us are not able to live & think that way. That's just the way it is for us.

The only thing I can say to those of you who are the 20 year-olds (and somewhere around that) is that, believe it or not, your possibilities are very much ahead of you. It's, in great part, letting yourselves see that and moving towards it. Easy to say but harder to do, I know but, again, there you are.

Go :hlogo: Go!

Edited by shortcat1
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Good grief, we're mortal and our aspirations extend beyond the limits of our mortality. It's only someone who's totally at peace with her/his situation that doesn't struggle with that. A guy called Paul wrote that he learned to be satisfied with where he was at, with what he had and didn't have. He was happy because his source of satisfaction wasn't in those areas.

That's so F'n true...

"Satisfaction" is not too far removed from "happiness", and the latter is very hard to find because we never start looking at the right place.

I won't go into long personnal details, but one of the best remedy to all those depressing thoughts is action. Get out of your comfort zone and do things...

Humans, we are beautiful beasts. All we need to be happy is already deep inside us, burried in our most basic feelings and instincts. We're sitting on a gold mine but we get distracted by shiny but meaningless things around us.

To get to the gold mine, you've gotta dig, and digging is to strip yourself to the core. To strip yourself, you have to get out of your security, get rid of the things you take for granted, get out of your head and throw yourself into reality, into the unknown, into the things you fear.

Whatever scares you, go there. Whatever bothers you, go there. Whatever moves you, go there. If you're down about something, its just like being hungry. Its not because you're not good enough, its because you're meant for greater things than what you're fed. It means you can eat more. So just sink your teeth into whatever is around you and get your fill.

And remember: an elephant is better ate small bites at a time.

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Oh yeah, I'm not saying U of C is better RIGHT NOW because it isn't.

I think in 5 or so years though you'll see a definite change.

And I know this is off-topic but out of curiosity, any certain part of Calgary you enjoy? I live way up in the Northwest, area called Hidden Valley.

My sister lives around 25th and Macleod, like 2 minutes from the Elbow, and her boyfriend lives right off 17th. That's where I've spent most of my time. I've hung out in Kensington and Inglewood too, and some 'hoods up near U of C (that's in the NW, right?)... though I don't remember the actually name of the neighbourhoods. I like all those areas. I haven't spent too much time in areas far from either my sister's or her boyfriend's, because of a lack of a car and poor public transport.

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Yeah, our public transportation is awful. And they think they're improving it but it just seems to get worse and worse. Theres an EB and movie theater and whatever thats about a 3 minute drive from my house but if I take the bus up there during the day (which I usually do) it's an hour. Horrible.

And thats cool, I think the University is SW though but just barely. The city dividers are Center and 16th Ave. and I think U of C is on the southside of 16th. I know where Kensington is though, that was right by my high school. They have an internet cafe over there by CPU (a pizza place, don't know if anyone has heard of it) that I used to go to during my spares. When you're there in the summer, go to Riley Park, it's right by Kensington. It gets beautiful in the summer (and it's where all the ladies like to hang out ;))

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Whatever scares you, go there. Whatever bothers you, go there. Whatever moves you, go there. If you're down about something, its just like being hungry. Its not because you're not good enough, its because you're meant for greater things than what you're fed. It means you can eat more. So just sink your teeth into whatever is around you and get your fill.

I feel like im listening to Baz Luhrman with the Sunscreen song :D

Thats a funny song quite suitable for this thread ;)

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cool. My question to option+ is what is it like living in yellowknife?

A lot of people swear by it, but it's not for me. I can safely say that I'm a city person - I like urban life, and there's not much of that up here. If you're looking for good nightlife, a variety of restaurants, a diverse arts & music scene, then this is certainly not the place to move.

It's also not for people who dislike feeling isolated. The nearest major city is Edmonton, about 1600 km (1000 miles) away. Lots of people drive it, but it's a pain in the ass. Flying there costs $700-$800 on average return, unless a better deal be found. My favourite thing about living in Montreal and England was that I could wake up Friday morning, decide I was going somewhere for the weekend, and then go that afternoon. You can't do that here: you're pretty much stuck here unless you make concrete plans (and shell out lots of $) to go elsewhere.

Oh, and it's cold in the winter. I've seen -40, -50, -60.... it's not pleasant. And it gets dark; in late December/early January, we only get maybe 5 or 6 hours of daylight per day.

Yellowknife is best during the summer with a good group of friends (which I do have). It's awesome if you're an outdoorsy type. There are literally hundreds of good camping spots within an hour drive or two from the city, and if you're prepared to drive a bit longer (3-7 hours), the rest of the NWT is absolutely spectacular. It's fantastic for fishing, too. And if you don't mind being a bit cold in the winter, there are lots of places to ice fish, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross-country ski.

The best time to be up here is around the summer solstice, when it's pretty much 24 hour daylight.

As for the people... it's a mixed bag, like always. When I was born here, Yellowknife was very much still a frontier town, full of roughneck miner types... you can imagine the attitude many of them had. Things have changed a lot, it's more a government/bureaucratic city than a mining city (though lots of people still work in the diamond mines north of here), and the populace is easily more sophisticated now than they were 10 years ago. A lot of people up here pride themselves on how friendly Yellowknife is... personally I've never seen it that way, but it must be stressed that I'm in the minority when it comes to that. One thing about Yellowknife is that it's a surprisingly diverse place; caucasians are the majority (which is rare for the NWT), but there are big populations of Aborignals and Filippinos (surprise!) and increasing numbers of African and Latin American immigants too. There's also a pretty vibrant francophone community (they pretty much form the core of our puny arts scene). It's by no means a homogenous place.

*Shrug* It's a difficult place to describe unless you've been up here. It's exactly like every smallish town in Canada, but at the same time it's not even remotely close to other smallish towns in Canada. I was born and raised here and I'm very proud of that... but I'd never even dream of living here permamently.

Edited by option+
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cool. If I ever moved up there my family would joke "PTG he's living in the land of the igloos" lol.

So what do you do? Plus I heard that you have to keep your cars running at night during the winter. Sheesh anybody care about the environment up there? lol, just kidding. All that CO2 is going somewhere. lol.

I am personally a full-time student, completing my MA (I am here right now because I ran out of money and couldn't afford to live in England anymore!). I'm going to Central America from January to March '07, and then I'll stick around for one last summer, but I'm gone permanently in September 2007. My parents are relocating that same year, so I likely won't be back here for a good number of years, if ever again.

We don't leave our cars running all night... but we do have to plug them in overnight to keep the engine semi-warm. But you're right, people up here are easily the worst air polluters per capita in Canada, because of how cold it is. People going grocery shopping will leave their cars running (you can't plug your car in at the supermarket)... or people running errands will do the same.

And it doesn't help that people up here favour gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks. I know that a lot of roads up here necessitate 4WD, and that lots of people are outdoorsy and need a big vehicle to stack their kayaks/mountain bikes/whatever, but I also know a lot of single 20-something pure urban dwellers who tool around town in a Ford F350. It makes no sense in my opinion.

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School in Yellowknife?! wow. Whats the mascot 'the hachets' or 'the swiss army' lol.

Lol, we don't have a school up here. There is a pseudo-college here, but the closest real college is in Grande Prairie and the closest university is in Edmonton. I'm still a student of De Montfort University in Leicester, England... all I have left is to finish my thesis, and my profs don't really care where I do that as long as it's on their desk by December 22. And since it's bloody expensive to live in England, I came back here to live for free with my parents while I finished up. :D

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Yeah part of me is just saying f-it and go for it. So what if I fail miserably at least I could say I tried. Instead of just sitting around saying poor me or just dreaming. Time for action.

Exactly. It's better to have tried and failed than to wonder forever after what could have been.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCc_DlPxlAg

Dont you know that song? Its great, and very typical for this topic! (but you gotta listen it completely)

awsome song...i wish i heard this when i was in schoool! lol

no just kidding but seriously he's right on so many levels!

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Exactly. It's better to have tried and failed than to wonder forever after what could have been.

Ain't that the truth. I haven't been there with something as complicated as PTG's situation (trying to decide what city to move to so I can continue my life would probably make my brain explode) but I've been there with a girl in high school I did nothing about. Liked her for grade 10, 11 and 12 and did nothing about it.

It really is a shitty feeling.

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Yup shitty indeed. So jets what do you want to do with your life? What kind of career?

I'm still not sure yet, something to do with writing. I applied to Mount Royal's journalism program (and got accepted) but I felt journalism was too restrictive for me so I'm going to work and raise money and eventually attend U of C to get a degree in English which leaves with a lot more writing options. I think I'd most like to be an author though.

My ultimate goal is to own a cabin somewhere in the Rockies and just write. The rich guy that my dad knows (who I've mentioned before) owns a cabin just outside of Invermere, a small town in Southeastern BC. I'd love to get a place out there, beautiful scenery, very relaxed atmosphere and only 2 and half hours away from Calgary.

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