Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, U is for University.

I’ve been to a few universities. I kind of grew up in the University of Regina as my dad was a Composition and Theory professor and my mom taught flute at the Conservatory that was associated with the U of R.

Growing up I knew I would go to university after high school, and while I prepared myself for going into Pre-Vet medicine, as you may already know, that path did not last long. In fact, it lasted a year and a half, when two things happened: I started to play the bass, and physics. Physics happened. And I almost failed it. So, enough sciency stuff for me, and into music I went.

I graduated with my first degree in 1987, a Bachelor of Arts in Music. And off I went to Ottawa to study bass, and eventually to get into the University of Ottawa Master of Music program. Ottawa for three year, no degree to show for it, and back home.

After a bit of time off, I went back to the U of R, this time taking language classes, and eventually falling in love with Linguistics. Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, Honours, came in 1994 and then the Masters degree in 1997. Then I just hung around at the U of R working as both an instructional designer in distance learning, and also as a sessional instructor in Linguistics.

At one point I thought I would get a Masters of Distance Education and took some classes from Athabasca University. But eventually I decided I wanted to try for a PhD in Linguistics and went to the University of Manitoba for a few years before I skipped out and we moved to Victoria for Kevin’s work.

I taught a class at Royal Roads and got a job at the University of Victoria as an instructional designer. And then moved to Camosun College, where I still am as an instructional designer.

I take classes from the University of Toronto in Creative Writing now, and I am also finishing up a Diploma program in Open Education from Kwantlen Polytechnic University – both these programs are, not surprisingly, online. I will actually finish the Diploma this summer, and will eventually look into applying for the Creative Writing certificate at U of T once I get around to it. I definitely have enough classes now…

Oh, and I have also taken photography classes at Camosun and U Vic over the years. More lately, the UVic classes have been in Zoom, which works well for me considering I am pretty lazy about wanting to go out at night in the dark and often rainy winter nights.

I think my days of formal education are behind me though. I will keep taking classes I am interesting in (that’s what Continuing Studies departments are for) and when courses are offered online, the sky is kind of the limit!

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter U.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…