3 Years in Alberta and a First Home
June 1, 2016: The day I received the keys to my first home, which coincidently was 3 Years + 1 day in Alberta.
What a journey it has been. I spent mornings looking into a pair of blue, cold eyes that wanted to crush your dreams and destroy your entire future to protect the prestige of their elite brethren. Gradually over the years I began to perish against the battle against the old money products, trust fund babies, elite academics at prestigious universities, wealthy Asian and other immigrant money products, and others with considerable connections and financial resources, fought with my own family who supposingly were supposed to accept and love me for the man I was, and the emotional spillovers from dating women who decided their exes in their moms’ basements were superior lovers.
The end seemed closer in sight by the day, and gradually I came to the realization that I wasn’t fit to defeat the competition to nudge my way into Investment Banking, Law, Medicine, or the like… not to mention with the poor economic prospects in Vancouver, I couldn’t even find full-time work to pay my bills.
Shortly after my 20th birthday I decided that it was enough, and threw everything in my car and drove to Alberta to recover my losses and to start a new life.
I spent 12+ hours a day in the baking sun digging dirt, cutting grass, packing gravel, then in down to -48C lifting 150lbs. with my wrists and stained in oil and other toxins. When I had spare time, I educated myself as much as possible on the financial world, particularly on oil and penny stocks. Traded and semi-invested. Made money, lost money, repeat. Dated many bad women only looking for attention and to waste a working man’s time. Then running a large specialized truck, used pressurized water, dug holes and pits looking for old pipe. I learned then someone one night spiked my beer, then was out of work and ended up running heavy equipment and driving them on and off wooden trailers, chaining them up, and transporting them across the city and province with a semi. That winter, then I hauled water and mud for drilling rigs, covered in head to toe in shale and mud on some days removing it from tank(s) for transport, or to spread it on a field in the middle of nowhere. When summer came once again, back I went on the machines and the semi moving them around. I worked on a road construction crew that cut and demolished old asphalt or roads for replacement. And now, I run oilfield trucks for fluid transport and industrial cleaning and support services.
And 3 years + 1 day later, I am still here, revitalized.
