History

In 2002, Ezio Manzini of the Polytechnic University of Milan gave an opening lecture for the University of Alberta’s New Residential Services for Sustainable Ways of Living workshop that would change the way I would view the role and potential of designers unalterably.

The following is NOT an exact quote, and does not come close to giving Ezio Manzini the justice he deserves, but this is what I remember:

“If you really want to make a difference in the world of development,… go to China. If China can adopt sustainable development practices, so will the rest of the world”.

Those words still ring in my head today.

…

Fast forward a bit – June 2004 – Convocation at the U of A.

A nervous anticipation takes over me as the great unknown of post-post-secondary approaches. I run into an old friend of mine from high school who wants to catch up for a few minutes. I tell her of some of my crazy plans for the future, one of them being a trip to China, maybe to teach English for a while. She tells me that it might help if I try it out in Edmonton first (her dad conveniently runs a summer program for teaching English to foreign students). Sounds good.

I met her dad and before I knew it, I was part of the program as a teaching assist. It turns out to be a great experience and the kids are fantastic. Being the summer, I also got the chance to learn some of the practical skills I thought I had been missing from my formal education (ie. How to garden – you never know when the stores might run out of food or start charging too much (or so my thinking went at the time)).

After that I took some time to work on my design portfolio and start looking for work in my field. I figure I should at least get some experience in design before I head over to China.

November 2004 – I’m almost ready to leave, either to work as a designer in Oregon or as an English teacher abroad. My decision – to stay. Why? I got an email from another friend I hadn’t seen in a long while, asking if we could get together to catch up. We did, and I suddenly came to the realization that if I did move, I’d have to forgo everything here to pursue my career. Hmmm… is it worth it, I thought.

By early 2005, I was getting a feel for what was available in Edmonton as far as work went, and indirectly, as far as life outside of work went. That’s when dance started to become a bigger part of my life. Allow me to rewind a few years…

September 1999 – First year university.

WOW (The Week of Welcome), otherwise known as or equated with Club Fair. It really was like WOW! So many things to take part in! So much variety! So much… LIFE! It was amazing! “You mean you guys in your club actually like to sing?… to dance?… to debate?!?!?… ah, I’ll pass on the debating club, thanks. But really, it was like heaven to me.

Anyway, just to let those of you who don’t know in on this, the only club I was consistently a part of from my first to last year at the university was the UADC (the Dance Club). However, because of commitments to school, friends and other things, as well as a knee injury in 2003, I never did get really good at any one dance.

Ok, back to 2005.

Salsa – Now this was a dance, with a following. And not only that, I felt so free doing it! Unlike ballroom style dances, salsa seems to be a little less formal, and a little more fun as a result. Going out to dance now every Tuesday or Friday night was almost mandatory. I started taking classes, and my interest in the dance grew like fire (Can I say that? I needed some kind of metaphor). It was great.

Anyway, once the summer of 2005 rolled around, a few things hit me. One, I felt like I hadn’t really gotten very far with work (I worked a few contract jobs since graduation and didn’t get much out of networking). Two, I still wanted to go to China (I even took a course for teaching English overseas (A word of advice for those of you thinking about this: unless you apply for a job that requires a TESOL certificate, you really don’t need it). And three, I fell in love.

Yeah, I know.

…

I didn’t realize it at first, but I knew that I had to get to know this girl. It certainly wasn’t the first time I felt that way about someone, but it was the first time that it would really matter.

In late August 2005, I took off for a second design conference with the intention of looking for opportunities for good design work, but with a job offer back in Edmonton if nothing came of my search. Luckily, I was unlucky at the conference and returned home to start work as a model maker, continue dancing, and getting to know this special someone.

Things were great. We were just friends, but it felt like we had already spent a lifetime together.

December 2005. I received some bad news. Something about the past that I only wish to say, made me change my role as a friend. I now felt obliged to watch out for her. To help her, if I could. I guess that’s where I went wrong.

January 2006. The hardest month of my life (so far). Not much sleep. Working a full-time job; two contract jobs for the same client; and a (for fun) design competition. Also, I’m noticing the quantity and interest level of other guys in this girl. Although, it shouldn’t have been my concern, I felt overwhelmed and outnumbered, and by the end of the month, I told her I could not see her for a while.

Now this was a crucial point, because the timing of everything then forced me to look at that decision with deep foresight into the future and become aware of all the foreshadowing I had missed in the past. From that point on, every thing I could or could not do felt like a mistake or the steps of another person’s life. It’s hard for me to explain it like this, but a few things I can expand on: April 2006 – A friend of mine that I was just really getting to know, passed away suddenly. By the end of the month, I felt like I had to quit my job. 8 months. That’s long enough to be like a practicum I thought. In May, my dad asked me if I wanted to take a trip to England to “represent the family” at one of our cousin’s weddings. I said “sure”, “And there’s another wedding in Toronto”, “Ok”. So I went.

I’m never going to do two Indian weddings like that again. If you ever do, you’ll know what I mean.

June was a pretty crazy month. I spent long hours applying for jobs any and everywhere I could with the title _____ designer or the like. It felt like 2004 again. By the end of the month, I had started some work as a graphic designer for one of my past clients in Edmonton and started getting responses from some of the jobs I had applied to. By mid-July I was off once again, this time to New York for an interview in Connecticut and meetings in Boston. When I came back, I had realized some things about the real world of design and the life of designers and decided that I might not want to do that full time.

Oh yeah, I also entertained the idea of going to China once again.

Late July and August were a pretty slow months for me. So slow, that some days I just spent a 9-5 checking and sending emails. That was hard. The only things that really excited me, and that I looked forward to were the weekends – A salsa event each time.

Ok, I’m going to try to finish this now.

Things turned around (as far as work goes) in the last two weeks of August. I started to hear back from places I had applied to and got some leads on jobs I didn’t even know existed. I also found a job in China.

Basically, the situation is now like this:

I got a call from the place in Connecticut I had an interview with, and got a job offer.

I visited a place in Edmonton that wasn’t even hiring a designer, and got a job offer.

I had two interviews with yet another place in Edmonton, and got a job offer.

I signed a contract with a company in Shanghai, China to teach English.

So what am I going to do? Well, I said to them all that I’d honor the commitment I made to the job in Shanghai. So I’m going.

Why has it taken me so long to commit to this idea?

Leaving everything behind and missing out on what might happen here. I’ve grown very fond of the friends I’ve made in Edmonton and especially those that salsa dance. I feel like I’ve finally found a group that I can relate to and learn a lot from. I always thought dancing would bring people together, but now I have to leave it all to find myself and my place in this world.

So, I’m off to China. I know things will change when I get back, but it’s a risk I have to take, now.

… I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference…

…

And so on the story goes…