The Writing and Photography Blog of Kevin J Sabo

Here’s to being another year older and wiser.

The birthday celebration was quiet this year. I ended up working out of my Stettler office for the day then met Lynn and a friend for supper at a Stettler restaurant.

Lynn did give me a nice birthday present though, a new briefcase for work which I think is awesome.

I got some birthday money from Lynn’s mom and my parents as well, which I will be using to purchase a new voice-recorder and maybe another photography-related item whenever I get into Red Deer next. I’m just waiting for my M6 mii to show back up at the camera shop from being warrantied.

As for my main birthday celebration, we did that today; we took in the first performance of our community theatre group’s new show. While I am somewhat regretful of not being part of the production this year, I also know that I can’t be everywhere and I just plain haven’t had the time.

The show was absolutely amazing and I am definitely glad that we were able to go. The cast and crew should be proud of themselves.

Work and school have both been keeping me busy. I’m managing to remain on pace with my coursework, despite how busy work has been. I still need to get looking through the course calendar and figure out what course I want to start for my April start date. At this point I am strongly leaning towards getting back into the history portion of my degree work, but I have made no firm decisions.

Part of the reason I’m considering jumping back into the history part is a course I am auditing through the University of Alberta. The U of A is offering a 12-week Indigenous Canada course which dis a high-level look of Indigenous issues going back to Canadian confederation. The information in the course has been very eye-opening, and as auditing it is being provided free to everyone, one I suggest everyone take.

I am really enjoying work. It is keeping me engaged and busy. Between the two markets I cover there always seems to be something going on. The trick is getting everything covered without burning myself out. Fortunately, I have a couple of reliable freelancers I can rely on from time to time. And, the fact is I unfortunately can’t make it to everything, but I do what I can.

That said, I’m grateful for the long weekend. I ended up driving out to Buffalo Lake, near Stettler, to take some photos of an ice-fishing derby taking place this weekend yesterday, and today’s theatre performance was as much for myself as it was for work. However, the rest of the evening and tomorrow I can actually take some down time.

Mentally, I don’t know that I’ve ever been stronger. My confidence has grown significantly. While I still do have some cycles of negative thoughts, they are no longer as bad as they once were. As I approach a decade since I left working EMS, I don’t know that I recognize who I once was. That’s not a bad thing.

While I had a few lucky breaks along the way, which helped get me where I am, they were punctuated by a whole lot of hard work as well. I’m glad that the effort is finally paying off.

Kevin