Well, It Has Been A While...

Yeah, it has been, hasn't it?

So what's goig on?

Well, I'm still in Thompson working for Perimeter as a Ramp Attendant waiting for a flight-line position.

There are a few steps that I have to complete before I can "get the call" to go flightline: a Metro systems ground school, which I completed at the beginning of August, and a Simulator Evaluation that I will be doing on October 7th.

Wait, did I say October 7th? In two weeks?

Yes, yes I did. Guess what's been occupying a lot of my time lately?






<- Practicing for the sim eval







So besides the panic of this evaluation, we've had fall arrive here in Thompson, and it's actually really nice.

When I'm not working or studying, I've been doing some fishing, reading, and other shenanigans.

We decided that we couldn't drive through that puddle, so we continued on foot, thinking that the lake we wanted to get to was near-by... 3 hours later and we finally made it and still had to hike three hours back...

I also went to Saskatoon to visit my sister, which was nice, and I rented a 172 to do a bit of flying while I was there.

So life here is good, even though it's getting cold again...

But that's neither here nor there.

I've said before that I've been called to mission aviation, that's why I went to Prairie in the first place. Now what I'm doing here is not mission aviation (though of course we are called to witness wherever we are), but I'm not giving up on full-time missions at all.

It takes experience to be a mission pilot, and I'm not just talking about flight experience. Here in Thompson, I am getting the aviation industry experience that I need, but I'm also getting valuable experience in being a witness for Christ in "the real world" while doing everyday chores and while doing my job.

Allow me to recap: I'm sorry I haven't been posting, I'm having a good time, life's good, I'm doing my sim eval soon (Deep breaths!), and I'm always preparing for the mission field.

I'm going to try to get a writing schedule going for this blog, I'm thinking bi-weekly... we'll see how long that lasts.

 Hey mom, guess what we saw at the zoo? ->

An Anticipated Adventure

So I went on an adventure!

You see, about 45 minutes out of town there is a waterfall called Pisew Falls. They're pretty, I've been there a couple times now, but there's also another fall...

Kwasitchewan falls! (10 imaginary points to whoever can pronounce that name on the first try).

Kwasitchewan falls are the tallest waterfalls in Manitoba at 14 meters (Everyone from the mountains, you can stop laughing now; this is a prairie province), and is more than just a bit out of the way. As you can see from the picture, it's a 22 kilometer hike, they say to plan twelve hours, though I think ten hours is plenty.

Anyways, I hiked the loop with a friend of mine. The trail is called "The Upper Track Trail" and follows the Grass River. This is waterway is important because in the late 1700s it was used for fur trading because it led to the Saskatchewan River and finally the Hudson Bay. Of course there was a lot of competition between the Hudson Bay company and the North West Company at the time; something you might have learnt about when you were in highschool, depending on where you live.

But enough about the history.

The trail follows the river all the way to the Kwasitchewan falls before turning back around along Phillips Lake and back to Pisew Falls. The trail is narrow, rough, and challenging, but also very beautiful.

After about four and a half hours we arrived at our campsite. Another twenty minutes brought us to the falls, the main reason I wanted to go on this trip in the first place.

The falls, though not the tallest I have ever seen, were pretty darn amazing. The best part (in my humble opinion) was that, because the falls were so off the beaten track, there was no one there and there were no silly safety fences or signs. The were rocks jutting out over the falls that we could just walk out onto and admire from.

 

But the awesomeness of this trip doesn't end with the waterfalls, because that evening, after a rather strong storm, we got a great sunset.

 

And so, after bearproofing our camp, we went to bed.

The next day we hiked home. The second part of the trail is a bit longer, and much
harder, but after five and a half hours (and two territorial grouses), we were back at the car and on our way home.

So, if you ever want a fun adventure in northern Manitoba, go check out the falls, it'll be worth your while.

Post-Grad

So I went to visit my College this weekend, it was grad so I figured I ought to go say hi. I actually decided that last Tuesday night right before my shift ended, and since I had the next week off, I decided to leave the next morning.

So yeah. I drove ten hours last Wednesday, then another four hours on Thursday to get to Three Hills in time for chapel (it was cancelled).

It was great to see my old friends and celebrate as many of them graduated, but now I'm home in Thompson and have *nothing* to do but think.

Throughout most of the last year or so of my college career I was looking forwards to getting out. I couldn't wait to start my own life, to get a job in industry, and live on my own.

But now that I have  all that, I miss college. I miss getting to just walk into my friend's room and sit down and chat, I miss texting them as soon as we were out of class to go find an abandoned home or a ghost town or a windmill.

But then I remember that I just wanted to leave, and I suppose that it's easiest to remember the good times, especially when the bad times are in the past, and I wonder what I will cherish about this chapter in my life once I move on.

So graduates, remember the good times you had, forget the bad, but don't forget that, as John Green says, "nostalgia is inevitably a yearning for a past that never existed".

Goodness, I sound like I'm old...

A Winter Morning Walk Through The Cemetery

It was fairly warm at -7°C, and sunny, I pulled into the parking lot, I was the only one there. I walked around. The sun was reflecting off the hoarfrost and everything was glittering. I started, it seems, with the newest graves, I wandered around, looking around, wondering what stories were hidden behind the head-stones.

I found one cross, the dates showing she was 24. On it was a piece of paper, obviously something done in class for mother's day, it said "Thank you mom for loving me and caring me. I wish you were here with me. Please take me up to heaven", I wonder how that little child is doing.

I continued on, past the graves of veterans, and found the older graves. These were unkept, buried under the snow, nearly impossible to spot. I wonder how many I accidentally stepped on. Many of them simply wooden crosses that were slowly falling apart. Those that had proper headstones were hard to read, though none were particularly old. Mostly from the 1960s and 70s. This town is young, founded in 1957.

I found one headstone that claimed that the man was the last permanent resident of Moak Lake. Apparently there are people living there now, I wonder what the story is...

I continued on and found the graves of several children all lined up beside each other. Some had died at a few days, some a few months, some a few years, so many stories hidden, I wonder where I could find them.

My hands were cold, and I couldn't feel my toes anymore, so I returned to the car.

Ohhhh Boy

So this weekend I was in Calgary for the Oval Invitational. It's a long-track speed skating competition, and I was really happy with my results. But that's not what this post is about.

No, on Friday I got a phone call from Thompson Manitoba.


I was in Winnipeg two weeks ago doing a job interview with a small(ish) airline, and Friday I was offered a position at their base in Thompson, Manitoba.

That was three days ago, I move in two days, to Manitoba, on my own, for the first time.

Let the crazy begin.

A New Chapter

August 17th, 2013: I moved into Prairie Bible Institute, I was 17 and eager to learn about the Bible and about aviation. I walked into my room, the small bed was bare, and the white walls as well. It wasn't long though before I moved in. I put posters and maps up on the walls, I had beding on the bed, books on the shelves, and my computer set up on the desk. Over time more and more books found their way onto my shelves, I aquired more posters, and I upgraded my computer gear.

That room became my home, the people around me became my family.

And today, two years, one month and two days later, I'm leaving. Last week I completed my flight training, and in just a couple hours my parents will arrive and we will drive back to Kamloops.

This chapter of my life is coming to a close.

The other day I was looking through my journals, and I found the entry from that first day here at Prairie, I wrote, "I'm nervous about college, but I know God will get me through". He certainly did, and I know He'll get me through this new chapter.

Why The Young Adults Didn't Vote: From A Young Adult Who Didn't Vote

So federal elections are fast approaching here in Canada. And after they count the votes and declare the composition of the new government, the media will start analyzing all the statistics from the election. And of course one of the things they'll say is "youth and young adults had a low-turnout".  Again.

And then they'll start coming up with all these explanations about why: Apathy, lack of political education, you name it. And these reasons are accurate, but they don't tell the whole story: as John Green said, "the truth resists simplicity". So disclaimer: I'm not going to cover all the reasons why young people don't vote, but I'm going to explain why I and certain others didn't.

It's simple really: Where do we vote?

I've studied full-time for the last two years in Alberta, so I think that I could have voted in the provincial elections they had here in April or May? But not one of my pieces of identification say I live in Alberta, not even my pilot's license (which I got here), They all say that I live in B.C.! So, I could have voted in the municipal elections they had recently? Well, I genuinely don't know (see lack of education mentioned above). I mean, I'm in B.C. for maybe a total of  month annually. I don't really consider myself as "living" there, even if all my papers say I do.

And that brings us to another reason, one that I mentioned earlier, apathy. Not in the sense that I don't care about politics (I genuinely do), but I'm leaving Alberta in a month or so (I hope), so I didn't care about their elections, and I'm never in B.C., so why would I care about who the Mayor of my hometown is?

So, I guess that the media is correct. We don't vote because of apathy and a lack of education.

Just maybe not exactly in the way they were originally thinking...