This is what I want in life. This is how I want to spend the next half of my life. I don't want to sit in front of a desk forty hours a week living in a big urban city. I can imagine a life like that that would be tolerable. But I want to be in the world before die. I want to feel it and feel it overwhelm me. I want to see a bit of what's been around for millenia.
I've gotten closer. One of the most moving experiences was assisting a Masters' student in New Zealand studying birds. I developed my own plans for an all-natural Wizard's lore walking to and fro nesting sites. Living in New Zealand in itself was great for this. Regrettably, I didn't get far away from Dunedin as much as I would have liked, if I'd known my stay there was going to be as short as it was, but I did a bit, and that was a treasure. It beats in my memories and my dreams. So do adventures out in British Columbia and busing across Canada, visiting northern Ontario and the east coast, with family and friends, over my decades.
There is something distinct about natural splendor, like I catch in the above, and the human wonders I encountered in, say, Germany. There is a lot of overlap, but I suppose I want to see things that are less manicured and directed by human interests.
So, why am I a computer scientist? Why am I working on a Masters even when motivation drags? Mostly because it seems like a path to the freedom I want. I didn't have the heart for biology in high school (and not because dissections made me queasy) and my mathematical mind probably would have found me stuck in genetics anyway. Computing is kind of special, though. I think it's the profession with the greatest freedom to work from home and define your own schedule. It's relatively in demand, portable, and pays well enough to cover travel, I think. I mostly need that mobility and control. I need to not be anchored to a desk. Sure, I can give 35 hours a week, dedicate it to solving problems to help someone in exchange from money, but from a mobile connection, anywhere on the planet, next to my tea pot steeping, in my well-insulated camper, as the sun rises outside the window on barren tundra.
That's for me.
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| Furthest east I've ever been (on this continent) |
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