I moved to Portland last month to start work at Portland General Electric as a Transmission Operations Engineer at the grid system control center. It's a dream role on which I'm thrilled to embark in the Pacific Northwest, with a utility whose mission dovetails in sync with my own values and career ambitions.
After enduring the past year of relative instability (financial, mental, and otherwise), I'm blessed to say that I've finally accomplished my longtime dream of moving out to Portland, with an amazing role that pays double what I made at the Montreal firm that canned me last year during the week of my birthday.
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| My transit/urbanist/nerd/queer dreams fulfilled - I made it to Portland! |
Since that time, I'd endured some time of admonishment by some of my dearest friends and family, blaming me for getting fired, gaslighting me as some sort of delusional pothead vagrant, and generally having lost confidence in me as a functioning, capable adult, simply because I didn't want yet to acquiesce into the comfortable little middle-class bubbles that are preferred by so many in my life.
And yes, I spent a good chunk of that time gazing inward at my cannabis habit, which has been formally diagnosed as an "addiction." I enjoyed about 6 weeks of an addictions recovery day program affiliated with my alma mater McGill that made me aware of and reflect on the interconnectivity between my cannabis habit, my tobacco habit, my mental health, and the motivations/drives that I've been working to repair during these past couple years of unemployment, depression, and COVID-19 social isolation.
I'm extremely thankful to James Mark for helping me on numerous occasions along the bumpy road of the past couple years. From bailing me out of jail in Iowa when I was arrested for cannabis possession, to more recently offering his home while I was broke and frantically searching for jobs, he has been there for me during some of my darkest moments. I look forward to having the chance to show him around Portland and the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Things are peachy now, and it seemed time for a blog update here that provides a sense of forward motion, momentum, and positivity in my life. I have a habit of blogging mostly when looking inward, getting emo, and getting all in my head. I'm blessed to have encountered such amazing kindness and hospitality from the friends I've made in Portland, not to mention my friends who've guided me along the rocky roads through Columbus and Montreal to reach this point, without losing myself too hard to the pits of oblivion.
