While I was sitting out in the cold yesterday I had some time to reflect on how I got here to Kearl and the iron working profession in general. It was not only cold but there was a cutting wind which was not exactly what they had forecast that morning when I was dressing! Once upon a time I was set for a life of domesticity. Set up for but not exactly ideal for. Something in my personal makeup ensured that I wouldn't succeed in that world. Something that I had been semi conscious of from way back before my memories even began.
I come from a long line of people infected with travel-lust. Simply being a Canadian proves that to some extent as everyone here came from somewhere else originally with the exception of our first nations peoples. Beyond that I was raised on family legends about great-great grandparents who were missionaries to Chine, Great grandparents who started out owning a tea plantation in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and who upon losing their fortune moved to Moosemin Saskatchewan. Another Great Grandfatber came to Canada as a young man a d made a fortune establishing a hugely successful commercial bakery. In the Grandfather level both served during that great overseas adventure that they called World War 2. And then there's my Dad.
When I was growing up we moved constantly. I never went to the same school for more than 2 years in a row until I started grad school! Dad was an entrepreneur which I grew up thinking was a French word for a shitty businessman! To his. Refit he never gave up and was eventually quite successful. He worked in International Development, speaks 4 languages (English, French, Portuguese, and Russian). He brainstormed and led the project to set up a stock market in Ghana, worked at central banks around the world, wrote a book about Credit Union management and another on Zero-base budgeting. He also started and successfully ran an international development company which, in his mid 70's he is currently selling. As you can see the familial influence was to explore and not to stay put. We have tumbleweed blood and staying in once place eats at us. An odd mix of. Predominant and curiosity makes staying and becoming successful in one place an impossibility.
My personal fantasies when I was young were influenced by the great outdoors. While in school I devoured. Looks about Gray Owl, Canadian First Nations, survival in the wilds, stories by Jack London and Robert Service and so on. We lived in Mississauga from the time I was 8 to 10 years of age. I personally spent most of my waking hours in the woods across the street. And then there was St. John's School.
I'll tell you about that tomorrow. I can see the surge bin that I currently work in breaking the cold Alberta horizon so I have to pack this in for another day. Cheers.
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