My three week visit to various parts of India was the most eye-opening experience I have encountered. I strongly recommend that everyone visits a developing, densely populated, profoundly religious faraway place if circumstances allow at least once in their life. With the right mindset, it can be completely moving. When soaking in the culture and many other differences from what we think to be normal, and witnessing completely contrasting extremes of rich and poor, then will one have a somewhat realistic understanding how billions of people live in the world that we take for granted.
I would consider both moving out and away from my hometown at the same time to be Travel as much as anything else. Graduating from TRU and moving to Oliver BC the next week, all in a loaded Civic, was like going out on a solo trip as anything else. Priorities included things like checking in to accommodation, finding a good restaurant and things to do – just like a vacation, but only with more pressure as there was no return ticket in case things went horribly! Thankfully, friends were made, wine was tasted, and I joined a curling team (never curled before in my life) that paired me up with my wife and mother of my girls!
I can’t summarize employment without stressing my evolution that extended over thirteen years in banking! Little did I know at the time, but my stint in Oliver didn’t last that long before taking a new role twenty Kilometers south, all the way to the border town of Osoyoos (it was ok, it almost had as many wineries as Oliver). This similar scene of packing up and shipping out occurred in Osoyoos, Trail, Creston, Nelson, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, and again in Kamloops as I concluded my career in February 2024
