I haven't posted anything here for a week, so here it goes...
Last Tuesday, a friend and I went to see the amazing short films of this year's European Outdoor Film Tour. The program is made up of ten films. The ones we liked best were "Baffin Babes", which was about a group of four women who spent 80 days in the arctic, "Dark Side Of The Lens" by Irish photographer Mickey Smith, and "Kadoma", the story of an expedition which South African kayaker Hendri Coetzee did not survive.
Also, last week I decided that I'm going to continue studying archaeology, and that is a final decision. I had published a blog post in October which I have since deleted... back then, I said that I'm not planning to work as an archaeologist... instead I'm thinking about starting on-the-job training next year or the one after next to become a mechanic (cars and motorcycles are another passion of mine).
I've given it a lot of thought and even though I still think it'd be nice to work as a mechanic, I now believe that I might regret not getting that Bachelor of Arts degree. I've got an IQ of just under 130 and it'd be a shame if I didn't make something out of it.
So if everything goes well, I'll graduate in the summer of 2012. By then, I'll have spent four years in the Hamburg / Lüneburg - region... I'm planning to stay in Germany... but I might move to another city.
I'm not going to lie though - it took my two best friends to convince me that it'd be a mistake to quit studying. I'm grateful to have such friends that don't encourage me when I'm about to do something stupid but get me back on track.
Lastly, after 10 days as a pizza delivery guy, I decided to quit the job. I was forced to work 11 hours on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday, and as I changed a flat tyre late at night, I wondered if I needed the money that much that I had to work under such conditions... and whether I would want to work another 12 hours on Sunday too... and the answer was a "no".
The weather has been miserable this past week, but I hope to be able to upload new photographs soon.
Blog post title taken from the song of the same name by Kavinsky.
Have a nice day.
- Dom
10 comments:
LOVE that song!
Hello Dom:
At the risk of sounding exceedingly dull and conventional, we should support your friends totally in encouraging you to continue with your degree course. Education is, in our view, one of the greatest enhancers of life and is to be valued as such for in whatever form or subject area it serves to enrich our existence. That said, we deplore the way, in today's world, it is seen as preparation for work rather than of great value in its own right.
What a miserable time you sound to have had with the pizzas. We do hope that you can afford to give them up.
cool decision about the archaeology - i got into it by accident as a second choice - and i found it opens up your mind hugely about material culture, humanity and meaning - a good life enhancing degree even if you never actually work as an archaeologist :)
@ Rachel: The song is on the soundtrack of the movie "Drive"... it fits the mood perfectly.
@ Jane & Lance: Thank you, and you're right about that.
@ Donnie: It did open up my mind so much, and it still does - you couldn't have said it better - I now have a much better understanding of history and politics, too. I'll always have a passion for archaeology, I'll continue to read whatever article about excavations or finds that I find, so I don't regret those three fantastic years of studying. There are ups and downs no matter what you do. Also, I'm glad I've met some great people at university.
And I do think you should bring the comment box back to your blog :-)
Oh wow, so you've gone the full circle in terms of your plans! That sounds bad but it wasn't meant to be. I have gone in several circles since December 2010 when I decided to go back to uni to study. It has absolutely been a growth period and I am happy where I am going now. So I am glad that you went on that journey and will complete uni and then pursue other dreams.
Hahah, I know! It's a big decision, and although I usually don't regret the less-important decisions I have to make in life, I wasn't sure about that, and the more my friends tried to convince me not to quit, the more I was sure that sooner or later I would regret not getting that degree. That's what friends are for. And I'm sure you'll finish your degree as well! :-)
:) I have my degree! I have a BA (Hons) in Psychology. Just not the field I want to go into now! I don't for one minute regret getting it. I do regret going out to work instead of studying my masters and I regret it every day. In my defense, the bottle neck to get into psychology masters in SA is ludicrous.
That's great. So what does my blog tell you about my personality? :-)
On the serious side though... I can imagine very well why you didn't get your masters and why you now want to go into a different field... the reason is, nowadays it's much harder to make a decision what to make out of one's life than it used to be when my parents studied. Back then, people didn't have such a huge variety of subjects of study to choose from.
Dom, I'm happy to hear this. I remember you mentioning to me about not wanting to take archeology on all the way anymore and I'm happy that you have decided to finish it out because you've already put so much time into it! Who knows what you'll want later down the road too ya know? My grandpa got his teaching degree when he was our age and didn't start actually teaching until he was in his 50's.
Shame about the work there :(
All in all though, it sounds like things are goin up from here :)
Thank you Brooke!
The amount of time I've put into my studies is exactly the reason why I'm planning to finish my degree. And who knows, maybe I'll be involved in archaeology in one way or another in the distant future. If I'm really going to work as a mechanic, there'll be a time when I'm too old for that... but there'll still be work as an archaeologist, in a museum maybe.
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