What's this site all about?

In my experience, current education systems do not incentivize exploring career paths that may be more difficult for you, personally.

This is made painfully clear in the path dependency of grades, where your performance on standardized assessments limits or enables your ascent to each subsequent academic milestone. Grad-school applications loom in my near future as I write these words. Privilidged are those who can manouver inside this education system to achieve their desired life. Lucky are those who can do without it.

I personally am doing fine in school. However, grades always limited my choices, instead shoehorning me into a subject I was already good at and lucky to enjoy.

And so, I am now here, in my third year of my Bachelor of Arts, returning to the interdisciplinary curiosities that have persisted throughout my academic journey.

What species of fish live in nearby lakes? How do electronics work, in terms of circuits and hardware? How does carbon trading work? How exactly are chlorofluorocarbons released in the atmosphere and is there anything being done to curb ozone layer damage? How are distributed energy systems creating a more resilient grid amongst climate change pressures on our energy supply? How can Canada create better jobs through revitalizing key manufacturing industries? How does one make surfuctants from plant materials? What is foreign direct investment? How does nuclear energy work? How do I cook a steak I actually enjoy? What web development skills can elevate my data visualizations and geospatial analyses?

These are a few of the many topics of which I hope to explore outside of my University coursework.

Essentially, this website functions as a low-stakes environment for me to practice skills and synthesize ideas from my self-directed learning. I created it in 2024. I was distracted for two years. As an aside: some of life's challenges are easier to deal with than others. It all depends on your own disposition, I suppose. The same water that softens the potato hardens the egg, and all that.

It is with great relief that I am happy to announce that I am no longer distracted, and am resolved to realize the initial purpose of this website.

What's the illustration about?

In my initial brainstorming of the design for this website, I reflected on my own experiences and personality. I'll save you the long story, but I experienced a back injury. It was more or less humbling to be reduced to the fraction of the person I thought I was. Physical disability has a way of completely changing your understanding of self and your life trajectory. Thankfully, I have regained most of my phsyical capabilities since. Emblematic of this experience is the period in the image where I trip on the rock and fall on my face.

Over the course of my recovery, there were many other experiences, reinjury aside, where I felt as though I kept falling on my face. The way that I am now, is not how I want to be. I am unpolished, I make mistakes I should know not to make, and the only way to work around this is to keep pushing forward.

I could opine about the value of perserverence, or how life thrusts upon you events you could have never forsaw, and in dealing with those you must extend great self-compassion. As meaningful as those revelations are, I want this site to capture the rawness and beauty of my imperfect progress, instead of espousing virtues that would generate likes and celebrations on a LinkedIn post. No need for trite rehashings of age-old wisdom, this is a space for learning, patience and passion.

My goals are life long, I want to learn to make my life richer. I want to share my learning because I want to hear other's thoughts, because I know my knowledge is not absolute and that learning is a social process. I want to share and create community

Despite the delays, the mistakes, or simple exhaustion, I will always return to this project. Considering everything I have experienced and am yet to experience, I must continue pushing forward and improving.

What can I, a reader, expect from this website?

I do hope the content uploaded here, dry or sincere, serves to inspire all who encounter it. Topics can range from geomorphology to the sandwich I had at lunch, it really depends on my thoughts and experiences that day. Some entries will have a journalistic style, while others may be more academic in tone. I will do my best to categorize them accordingly, to make it easier for any interested or curious onlookers. I would be honoured and gracious to know that anyone finds my written work engaging, so plase do reach out if you have any thoughts on the matters I discuss, questions or criticisms. All is welcomed, in good and constructive nature of course.

All illustrations, images, data visualizations, and maps published here are my own, unless otherwise stated.