My friend walked up to me on campus the other day. Conversations usually go like this. They asked me how I was, what was new, and finished by telling me I should blog more. Blog more? More like I should start blogging again. I don’t know where blogging became this part of my life that I didn’t have time for, but today as I was procrastinating essay writing through looking up “Ira Glass” on YouTube, I stumbled upon his four part series on storytelling.

More and more as I go deeper into doing a degree in First Nation Studies than my intended major of Visual Arts (high school dreams), I realize my degree is about things more than just First Nation Studies. It’s about place, it’s about time, it’s about identity, it’s about culture, it’s about communication, it’s about history, and most of all it’s about stories.

I wish I could get a degree from UBC that says on a nice crisp piece of paper, “Hi I’m Erica Baker and I have a degree in stories and storytelling,” or “Hi I’m Erica Baker and I have a degree on British Columbia and I never want to leave, class of 2013.”

Read more below…

Why do you always ask me what I’m going to do with my degree?
There’s always this thing too that goes along with choosing your degree, well two things actually. The first being that people always associate what you are studying with the amount of money you are stereotyped to make afterwards (or how quickly you can run into a lot of cash money, that’s important too) based on closed-minded assumptions of what career is attached to that degree (or for Arts often assumed that there are no careers at all) and the second being that people always ask you what you want to do, even when you are in high school. Worst of all, when you are in first year. I’m not concerned about my career in first year, I’m concerned about passing my courses and getting to graduation first.

At this point, I’ve got a pretty good 20 minute rebuttal going for anyone who asks me the career question.
What do you want to do with your degree? What career do you want to have? Here, I’ll save you from the twenty minute rant about how we shouldn’t be focused on one career and I’ll just say that, rather, we should direct ourselves towards what we are passionate about and good things will come, because realistically how often does everyone land their dream career anyways and you’ll never be happy in the career you have if it’s a close-minded approach to what makes a good career.

Here’s the career I want. I want kids, a family, a husband, and a job that looks at my degree and resume and recognizes that I have a degree in storytelling, British Columbia, adventure, identity, leadership, and communication across cultures. I want a job that isn’t 9-5. I want a career that isn’t cookie cutter, so to everyone who asks me the career question I really can’t name the specific career I’m going for, just what my interests are and I know that I will eventually get there.

Here’s what I’ve wanted to mention about my new interests
Recently I’ve become interested in education masters programs, specifically student development, curriculum and higher-ed excites me. Also, I’ve been taking my love for This American Life more seriously and considering taking my degree in storytelling to their studios and working for them for a while after graduation, if I’d ever be so lucky. Why not go on that kind of adventure? Be the Canadian on an American radio show who reports on the small pieces of beauty in everyday western life. I was already the token Canadian character on LonelyGirl15, why not bring it to a new audience.

I’m back people.
This is me blogging more. Blogging without much editing. Putting some thoughts out there. There’s more to life than what my gpa is going to be when I graduate. There’s more to life than that career I’ll get after graduation. There are kids, there are quilts to be made, there are trips to take, and there are stories to be told.

I think I’ll try to get back into posting on her more (with plans of building a stronger information base for prospective students in the near future). I hope you like it,