Adjusting... Montreal Day 3

I've just finished day three in Montreal and can say that things are starting to look up. Certainly a bit hectic at first, but I'm figuring things out. I think my god send was meeting up with my friend Alex who is already living up here. I think I was really in need of a friend and being able to hang out with him and some other friends Saterday and Sunday was really good for me. It's hard to not feel alone at first... my roommates weren't helping with that too much but oh well. I'm figuring things out on my own.
I finally found a good place to park my car indefinitely, it's a bit out of the way but cheaper then what I ever paid in Burlington. I figured out that I'm a 10 - 15 minute walk to the closest metro. Figured out how to get to Alex's place and yea finally starting to get a feel for the area.
Coincidentally the sun has started to come out more =) Just as the first day had been gloomy, it seemed like Montreal was trying to make up for it.

Today I was introduced to a regular sunday event called the "Tam Tam" where a bunch of people just bring their drums and other instruments together in this park and play. It seems to be an interesting gathering of people out to just enjoy the day. Nearby there was a group of kids "LARPing" (Live Action Role Play) where they take fake weapons and basically attack eachother. Extremely interesting to watch =)

Well it's late and I feel like I need to sleep so I can be prepared for my first day of work tomorrow!! I starting to find my way here, and am looking forward to finding my way around a new work environment as well. This is enough for now, I'll try to write some more tomorrow.

G'night

A rough start...

Today it rained, and was generally pretty gloomy. Which certainly isn't how I intended it to be... I tried to get rolling early to I'd have the day to do things here in Montreal but fate had other plans. Beyond being detained at the border for quite a while, my parking spot (the one promised with my room) well let's just say I couldn't park there. So I had to spend the afternoon trying to figure out what to do with my car, ended having to pay more money and miss a meeting at Mistic. I'll admit that I'm not extremely impressed with how things are going thus far. I can't help but to keep wondering, "Wesley... what are you doing here?!"

Yet I keep reminding myself that while it may have a rough start... it's a start nonetheless.

Ready to move on....

I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime since I graduated something has changed. I arrived in Burlington yesterday, it was a rainy day but it was still good to see it again. Sort of like returning to an old home... It was great seeing friends and co-workers but I was stuck with an odd feeling through it all. I don't know when it happened but somehow I feel like Burlington isn't my home anymore. It's been nothing but home for me for the past four years, and many of my friends still reside here. While it was great to see the EMC, the place I spent many sleepless nights, somehow I had transitioned and felt like I was on the outside looking it.

It's sort of an odd feeling I guess, while I really want to be here to see everybody... I feel like I don't belong here anymore. It's both sad but almost liberating at the same time. I think I'm ready to move on...

Tomorrow I move to Montreal... I wonder what it'll feel like there.

G'night

Next Steps...

Hello again, most haven't heard from me since graduation and well I've been sort of aloof; with some much needed time. I got back from Arizona at the beginning of this past week to visit and help move some stuff for my parents. They just bought a house up there in northern Arizona, which at times looks surprisingly like New England. It's been a while since I've been to Arizona but I really love the state, funny thing was that I went four years ago and afterwards was struck with a lot of creativity and inspiration. These developed into some different personal projects, but not too much really came of it. Interestingly enough I feel struck by this same sense that I felt before my college career, as always I seem to be bringing aspects of my life around full circle. I'm hoping between work this summer that maybe I can develop some of these ideas, I feel inspired nonetheless.

Since Arizona I've been trying to figure out all of the logistics of moving to Montreal, and it seems like I finally have everything mostly worked out. I'll be officially moving up to Montreal on Friday, and I'll be living with three others in a shared apartment for the month of June. The beginning of July I'll be moving to another apartment just across the Saint-Laurence and will actually be taking a train to work every day =) I'll be moving in with another intern from Mistic from France whose a programmer. From what I hear he speaks a little English... so this should be interesting!

It's interesting taking the first steps for the next part of your life, and I'm certainly still filled with mixed emotions. While part of me is eager and looking forward, I can't help but reflect on the last part of my life... it's odd with it just sort of ending the way it did. While I've been able to keep in touch with a few people, I haven't really talked to anyone from Burlington. I'm already missing College and Burlington... It'll be wierd starting over in a new city. Burlington had turned into a place where I knew not only the city but it's people. While I'm sure I may be lost for a little while, it'll be interesting finding my place all over again.

I still receive notifications about what the UN team is up to, meeting updates, updates to their repository, and some messages back and forth. I can't help but wonder how things are going, what new things they have discovered, and where the team is headed next. Things at the EMC change constantly and they change fast... I'm sure whatever direction the team is headed now it's in a good one =) My last few weeks at the EMC, I was also preview to interviews for the new positions on the team. I'm curious about how the dynamics have changed, especially with receiving two new artists and losing one. I'm proud to have been apart of it all as long as I was, and I'll miss it. If anyone from the team is reading this I wish guys the best of luck.

Next you'll hear from me I'll probably be in Montreal, working on who knows what? Either way I probably won't be able to share it =)

The next Chapter

So yesterday I graduated... A moment that was a long time coming, and yet extremely anticlimactic. It's definitely feels like the turning of a new chapter in my life, and while I'm looking forward with anticipation, I can't help but feel like I didn't tie up all the loose ends. It was certainly a time for reflection, and this came most as I began to clean out my room. It started with some name tags that I had hung up on my wall, I had begun collecting them from different conferences and events.

Its crazy to think about how much has happened in such a relatively short amount of time. From Florida, to Boston, to Houston, to Montreal, and even San Francisco... It's surreal to think about how many events I've had the opportunity to attend... how many people have I talked to? How many people have I had the opportunity to present to? In high school I remember when I started doing Drama and I had this nervous tendency to talk in an accent on stage when I was nervous in front of people, and to think now I've been on stage presenting to 2,000+ business professionals, I've taught classes to freshman, given presentations to representatives from the United Nations, and even gave a presentation at the Montreal International Game Summit. It's almost like a dream really... with it all being over it almost feels like it didn't quite happen.

On my next wall I had concept sketches from our America's Army map, and some concept stuff from our game Transcendence. That's another thing that I hadn't given much thought to... I worked on a released a map for America's Army that people are still playing online. People have logged about 13,900 hours playing our map since December... it's nuts really...

And quite possibly my biggest experience was going to Africa, which I've blogged plenty about and is something that will just never leave me. These past four years have been nothing short of amazing. There have been hard and stressful times, but working through it and coming out the better for it... I guess it's sort of a growing experience. I can't really believe it's over.

For the most part I have no regrets, I took chances, I was ambitious, and I took what opportunities that were available to me. I said "Yes" to everything I could, which certainly made it hard at times but I think I'm the better for it. It's hard to write everything I've been wanting to say right now, I've been meaning to blog all this week but I had been trying my best to soak what I could out of my remaining time in Burlington. Thinking now I do have a few regrets... I had really only begun to be friends with a group of my classmates that I was graduating with, fairly recently. That was one thing I never was really, I was never tightly knit with the others in my own degree program. I made plenty of friends for sure, and my two best friends I had known since my second day at the school and remained friends with them all fours years. Yet to feel like a bit of an outsider with other people in your major, who you might possibly relate to more about some things... I dunno I just regret it. I also feel as though I don't have much closure with a couple of my professors and even a few people I worked with, but it's truly the time to move on.

On that note I guess this is a good a time as any to say that I am accepting a 6 month internship with a studio in Montreal called Mistic Software. I couldn't be more excited about this tremendous opportunity! I was able to say, before I graduated, that I have something lined up... and to be honest I was very nervous. With the economy the way it is, and with it being so hard to get a job in industry anyways, I wasn't sure I'd find a place too quickly. Granted this is only an internship, but I can't help but hope it may turn into something more. I have a job in a gaming studio, doing what I love to do... I guess that's the goal isn't it? I know that starting with Mistic will be my first step to hopefully a long career. What scares me is the move to Montreal, while the city is beautiful, it's been hard to find a place to live thus far and well I'm moving to a different country! AH! Although I'm still as close as I can be to my friends and family, this is really the ideal position for me and again I couldn't be more excited. I can see the first chapter in the rest of my life... and I'm filled with hope.

I was able to party after graduation with some friends but mainly my parents and the families of my friends Steph and Niki. I met Niki the second day I arrived at Champlain, because I was at the cafeteria too early for breakfast and so was she. I don't know how we became friends but we just did, and Steph was her neighbor at the time in Cushing Hall. Steph and Niki got introduced when Steph needed to borrow scissors for something haha and well the rest is history. It's been the three of us for four years strong, we've had our ups and downs but we've stuck together and I couldn't be happier to have met them. Near the end I've been getting nervous that we may lose contact, going our separate ways... but that doesn't scare me now. We're friends for life and I don't plan on letting that happen =) What was so neat about this afternoon was that it was the first time our families actually met each other, after all these years. It was all like everyone belonged, and in some way we're all one big family brought together by an early visit to the cafe and the need of open something.

I really need to end this post! I'll finish with saying thank you to everyone who I've met while I've been on this path, without you (either good or bad) you helped shape me to be who I am today... and some definitely more than others. To others I regret that we weren't friends longer, and had the opportunity to really get to know each other better. I hope I had the opportunity to help others as much as everyone has helped me to be who I want to be today. Thank you for picking me up when I was down, helping my find my path, or just listing to me. If I didn't say good bye it's because I meant to, I'd rather not say good bye to anyone. While the chapter has closed on Champlain, I hope to keep a spot open for you in the next...

Thanks,

Wes

( I found it completely necessary to document this liquorish brick I found in my cupbord with I'm pretty sure is 2 years old haha)