The Idea

After reading about half of Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I was feeling rather inspired and went out for a walk to try to sort out my thoughts. I prayed for direction, mainly thinking I wanted a physical direction for my walk. Although, what I really needed was life direction. I got a bit of both in the end.

I’ve been trying to narrow things down by remembering what it is I want the most in the world; this is where my train of thought started that night as I started to wander. What I want most: to go to Africa, to help in some way. I am also dying to visit Rwanda. Devouring every book about the genocide and survivors and killers has been an obsession of mine. So, I thought… what would be the first step to getting me closer to my goal? A closer physical proximity to the Dark Continent might be a good idea. That means going east. And if I want to spend time in Rwanda, it would behoove me to learn French first so I can better communicate with the locals. So that was the beginning: move east and learn French. Sounds simple enough, in theory. The details started to fall into place after that. After a one-hour meandering walk around Victoria on a Saturday night, I returned home with a plan: move away, learn French and find a grad school with an International Affairs program. My destination at that point was unclear. It was all a matter of where the schools were, both grad school and the French school. Strangely enough, the French school that I felt the most comfortable with after some research was one in Ottawa. And my reasons for learning French are now twofold: for Rwanda (long-term) and to prepare for a bilingual grad school program in Toronto at Glendon College (a division of York University). 

The reason for my short time-line in getting myself out of Victoria? I had promised to visit Vancouver for my best friend’s convocation ceremony in early June and thought it was the perfect time to start my journey. I save myself the return ferry trip back to Victoria and I also don’t lose the momentum and motivation from a good idea. Taking action and doing so quickly seems to have been essential. I have lately been stuck in a pattern of making plans that never come to fruition. This time I’m going to make something happen.