In November 2010 I decided to apply for grad school to do an M.A. in International Development Studies. I had toyed with this idea since graduating in June 2010 but I was so burned by the intensity of my first degree that it took me a while to feel ready to go back to school again. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what I studied in my first degree (Honours BA in International Development Studies) but Matthew and I both did undergrad degrees at the same time. Financially it was very tough, but we chose to do it that way so that would be faster and at least we would both have the same focus. (And now that we’ve recovered from the experience, I think we would choose to do it the same way again.) There were many wonderful lessons learned from doing our degrees together too, for example, we truly learned to work as a team and we were completely united in our goals as a couple. That was great! Also, I got to learn a lot about Nursing from Matthew and he got to learn a lot about international politics, economics, and development issues – whether he wanted to or not ;) However, somewhere along the way it became apparent that am a crazy perfectionist. Who knew? I thought only my mom was that way! I guess it must be true that we all become our parents eventually. Anyway, this added unnecessary stress to my life as I tried to write 10-17 papers per semester perfectly, clearly not an attainable goal. I did, however, write some darn good papers during that period even if they weren’t perfect. From my first degree I have learned better ways of dealing with stress and I recognize that my desire to write a perfect paper every time is not reasonable and I think I have learned how to balance my life a little better. I suppose we will test that out this September when I start an MA at Dalhousie University.
Two days ago we moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. How crazy is that? We were extremely sad to leave our life in Regina. We had a good thing going there. We loved being close to several good friends and we adored living near Matthew’s sister Shannon and her family. We absolutely love them and we are blessed to have had several years near them. We already miss them like crazy. We were also extremely blessed to have an amazing Christian family at Glen Elm Church of Christ. We were truly part of a great community there and we take many lessons and wonderful memories from our time with them. We know that Halifax will be a good experience for us though. It will be a time for us to grow stronger as a couple and a chance to meet new people and experience the east coast culture of Canada. Not everyone gets such an opportunity. We know we are blessed and we are thankful. Also, we are at a stage in our life that we are totally unattached: we do not have a mortgage, debt (besides student loans), children, or well-established careers to consider. We truly can just go. So we did!
Despite our relatively ‘free’ stage of life, the move still took a lot of effort! We began packing boxes in June because we knew that once summer hit we would be gone most weekends with camping and a family reunion. Also, after learning that moving companies charge by cubic weight we decided to sell about 4-5 car loads of belongings at a garage sale and online and to store some personal things at my parents house. Why move it if we don’t need it in the next few years? In May we took a holiday to Halifax to scope things out and to find an apartment. After considering several options, we chose an apartment on the 7th floor of a high-rise just north of the commons and fairly close to downtown. We are going to try to live without a car and just use the bus and our feet instead. This will be an interesting challenge for two people who have always had a car. Really though, the majority of people in the world do not drive cars, so I’m sure it will be just fine.
During this next chapter of our life we are going to try to share a few glimpses of our experiences through this blog. If you stop by to read from time to time, please let us know by sending a comment or an email, we’d love to hear from you!
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