Having been hand-picked from a job in another province for the position she now holds in Edmonton, she is known across western Canada by top people in her industry. She is forthright, direct, goal-oriented, and focused. She doesn't let anything stand in her way.

The conversation happened upon the topic of moving away from "home". One woman said that it was modus operandi of her family. The kids just had to move away. When the women had children, the urge drove them even further away. The career woman noted that, out of all the many cities she's spent time in, she's met the most people who stayed where they were raised in Edmonton.

I offered that I was raised in St. Albert near Edmonton, and was asked if I ever feel the need to leave. Of course, I replied, but my family is here. The career women replied with "Well, I would never let that hold me back."

Being a scholastic achiever as a child, I was told by adults that I would be able to do anything I want with my life. Then, in high school, I noticed that my fellow high-scoring peers were receiving awards for extra-curricular activities while I was intently listening to Nirvana and Soundgarden at pop-n-chip parties. Sure, I achieved honours grades. I enjoyed the schoolwork. I didn't enjoy all the supposedly laudable structured activities that earned my fellow students accolades. So I wasn't involved in them.

I have always been the questioning type. Not content to "take their word for it", I have always seriously considered whether or not what I've been told is valid, and whether it applies to me. I did not study hard because I was told to. I simply drank in the knowledge. The beautiful and intricate sense made by mathematics, the fascinating lessons of history, and the awe-inspiring stories of literature all pulled me toward them. Debate club and rugby did not, despite the value placed on them by teachers. So the bronze and silver pins won with activity points went to my friends.

I was on the peer support team, though, because the knowledge offered there really interested me. I was busy, in those years, exploring myself, learning about my friends, and taking in the world. My pastimes and hobbies were laughing, singing, dancing, learning, ranting, and loving. And so, despite six years of post-secondary education resulting in two degrees, I now make a modest salary working for a small literary publisher.

It is the intrinsic value of things that I love. It is the rousing history of the world, the sublimity of natural settings, and most of all, the heart-warming relationships that fill my life.

I have always thought that having brains and/or talent was an easy ticket to "success". No one ever told me that it simply presented the opportunity to work hard and succeed. I may never have a very successful career, perhaps because my current favourite pastimes are laughing, singing, dancing, ranting, and loving. I'm addicted to smelling the roses. I see a career as something that can risk "holding me back" from successfully spending time with those I love, be they my fiancee, my mother, my brother, my friends, or my kittens. Maybe I'm a fuddy-duddy sap. Still, I once heard a wise old man say "I just don't know why someone would want to live somewhere that isn't home."

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