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May 29, 2005 - Celebrated Summer?

his summer is turning out to be an interesting one, despite how little of it has gone by. Despite a lackluster start, this could be a summer to remember. Whether that is good or bad, we shall see.

My final exams ended on April 27th. While I dearly enjoy studying Urban Planning, it can be quite exhausting, at least when compared to my first degree in Sociology. When I finished the term, this certainly held true. An avalanche of schoolwork and the isolation that can often impose on a reasonably dedicated student (for now, I'll put myself in that camp) left me not only exhausted, but depressed.

In addition, my poor emotional state was unfortunately compounded by other pressures associated with student life; Naturally, by the end of April, the money is gone (what little there was to begin with), and it's time to scramble for a job. Herein lies another source of angst for your faithful student: despite the fact that applications for summer jobs started flowing out as early as Christmas, there has been no response yet. This of course, does not signify the end of the world. However, it does usually mean a summer of drudgery spent stocking shelves, moving patio stones or some other relatively monotonous series of tasks. While some people are fine at coping with jobs like that, I find no joy in being treated like a drone by some power-deprived store manager, or like a half-wit by some stuck up yuppie who can't decide whether to go with interlocking brick or flagstone for their suburban patio. Despair starts to set in as one churns over those possibilities.

It appeared that my labour of Sisyphus for the summer was to be a delivery person for a Thai restaurant on Queen St. I must say that while the assignment came with some of the usual BS associated with a low-paying job, it had its merits. There were tips (unless you're reading this from the Canada and Customs Revenue Agency or OSAP) and I obviously had the luck of being away from my manager for good stretches of time, not to mention the free beer and cheap food. However, events conspired to take me on a different path for the summer.

After two summers of desperately hoping for a good summer job, my ship finally came into port. Out of the blue, I received a call from the City of Ottawa for a summer job as a Planning Assistant! In no time at all, my mood change from somewhat languid and unmotivated to optimistic and confident. I guess it goes to show that when people have something to look forward to, they tend to be much more positive about life.

So I've managed to move on to the next step in the challenge. While I've already had some experience in the Urban Planning field while working at the Canadian Urban Institute as a an intern, much of that work focussed on research, a field I am fairly comfortable with and enjoy immensely. Working for the City of Ottawa means that I will be more directly involved with day-to-day planning issues rather than larger, broader issues. This of course brings new challenges/fears: will my tasks be more black and white than in the world of research? I've worked for provincial and national bureaucracies before, so I'm fairly sure that the internal workings/curiosities of a municipal bureaucracy will not be of any surprise to me. However, how will my experiences with that bureaucracy be shaped now that I'm in a field that I'm actually passionate about? (My previous experiences in the public sector focussed on entry-level clerical work). How will actually working in the planning field measure up to my expectations? What are my expectations?

While I'm sure that the experience will be a positive one, it will no doubt have a great impact on the direction my career takes in the future. I'm confident as I think about the challenges ahead of me that this will indeed be a celebrated summer.