Goodbye Environment Canada

The thai tie a string around their
wrist to bond their guides/spirits to them while they undergo huge
transitions. Well, from a downtown highrise, to living out of my
backpack on the Haida Gwaii, I wonder how long my spirits will linger
at 401 Burrard St. Vancouver, the Environment Canada office where I
worked for the last 8 months.

Being stripped of your security
card is like turning in your apartment key, somehow... homeless,
normal citizen, or just rearranged a bit.

I said goodbye to my
boss, Risa, who is one of the smartest persons I've met. I said
goodbye to the other student and my colleagues. I'll miss them, and
other things too: 8 months in government office culture and the
grandiose issues of the environment becomes addictive - the self
importance, the wide network of professions, the opportunities for
growth, mentoring. Oh, and the dark insights into the
anti-environmental crusade of the Harpers.

Hard to imagine
myself without having worked at EC, without this knowledge I'm
accumulated. A gathering of a thousand scientists at the Georgia
Basin Puget Sound Science Conference, and I placed 3rd of 37 students
for my presentation of my time at Environment Canada, a testiment to
what I learned and the importance of my job - measuring the status of
our ecosystems.

Goodbye!