I grew up in Langley, outside of Vancouver, Canada. The area used to have a lot more trees before it grew into a commuter suburb for Vancouver. My father was an RCMP officer who later made his way to Telus, the phone company, and my Mother was a nurse. My parents always emphasized education, because it was what enabled them to escape life on the farm.
Because my parents were busy with work, I was frequently unsupervised, so I would frequently disappear with the local hoodlums to the small creek that ran through our neighbourhood. From this, I developed independence and a love of nature; traits that remain with me even now. In high school, the once-unthinkable concept of cycling 5 km (3 mi.) to school became my everyday commute. The challenge of the distance and the steep hill in the middle was soon conquered, and I naturally set my view on increasingly great distances to become a cycle tourist. The Fraser Valley is, in some ways, an ideal place for a budding cycle tourist, with enormous areas of flat or rolling terrain surrounded by beautiful mountains.
Upon graduation, I moved to Victoria to get my undergraduate degree in Geography. Victoria quickly became my home, and after graduation, I wanted to stay there. Unfortunately, despite graduating with honours from the Co-operative education program, I graduated into a difficult job market, and after working as a pedicab driver and looking for work for four months, I packed up and moved to Nova Scotia to take a GIS program in the Annapolis valley.
I was on my way back to British Columbia when I landed a job in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where I lived for three years. I liked Fredericton, but I needed to be in a bigger city, so I engineered my way into a transfer back to Vancouver. Despite the costs, I loved living in Vancouver, and there I met my wife and undertook my Master’s degree (and later my Ph.D.) at the University of British Columbia. After graduation from the M.Sc. program, a friend helped me to land a job at Vancouver Island University.
Gabriola Island, BC
I’ve been a resident of Nanaimo ever since, but it’s time for a change. I’m running out of trails to explore.