It would be really nice to do something meaningful when I graduate. I think often about work, the nature of work, and how we can live our lives with a healthy balance between needs, wants, and haves. When people ask me what I'm doing now there is no accurate short answer. "I'm a student and I teach kids, but I'm not an education student. I study water resource engineering, but I'm not only an engineering student. I also study environmental and social policy because I think it's important to know how to aim the powerful weapons of science and technology. I don't consider myself a policy scholar, though. More of a concerned citizen who likes creating solutions and seeing them implemented... and bikes. I like bikes." The answer to people's questions about what I hope to do when I finish school are easier: "I don't know."
Kate and I have been planning to travel after our combined graduations in May/June of 2006. This would not be a cruise to the Bahamas or a flight to Europe, but rather a hopeful migration, much like the exo-dusters of the 1930s High Plains to California. The Earth is a diverse and wonderful place to explore, but I haven't explored my own country yet. It seems like the thing to do when I graduate.
I know that many graduating students set out for a cross-country road trip with friends, either to relocate to their chosen post-college starting point or simply to take pictures of giant roadside statues. I think our trip will be different in the sense that we don't have a hard destination in mind, don't have a schedule or timeframe in which to complete the trip, and don't have what will be an important factor: income. We hope that creativity, frugality, and common sense can overcome these challenges. We might be wrong. We need to try.
Some of my recent posts have dealt with tiny camper trailers, some others have dealt with alternative fuels, some have dealt with housing costs in the Boston area. All of these topics are things that I am seriously interested in and that occcupy my mind during bicycle commutes to the various things that I'm doing now (see above). There is a dilapidated old 13 foot camper in the driveway of a house near ours in Somerville that looks like it is underused. Perhaps I can offer the owner $50 and haul it across town to refinish for our trip. Perhaps I can find work for an environmental NGO or 501(c)3 organization that will allow a flexible schedule or tele-commuting. Perhaps Kate will start her own guide business based upon her skills and experience gained in the OLP program in which she is now enrolled ("actively mature" readers contact her for more information about awesome tours). Perhaps a lot of things could happen in the medium-term. Where do we want to be, what do we want to do in the long term?
I would sometimes answer the question "What do you want to do?" with the cop-out response "Well, I know what I don't want to do..." and then I would list all of those things. This is the kind of negative discussion that lends this blog it's name. Answering questions that way does remove a lot of fun from people's day. So it came as surprise today when I realized a small portion of what I DO want to do in the long term. Let me try to articulate:
- I DO want to solve problems for people and communities.
- I DO want to be in a position to follow those solutions through their implementation. (Not just design, for example).
- I DO want to be involved in efforts that might loosely be called "environmental", but could include such topics as alternative transportation, technology education, or tribal environmental self-governance.
All the comments can't be positive, can they?
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