The side effects of Planning school.

Hey guys and welcome back to my channel! Just kidding… I’ve clearly been watching a lot of YouTube with this whole COVID-19 isolation thing… but that’s beside the point. I’ve been mentally working on this post for the last year, taking time to properly reflect and absorb things.

I’M FINISHED GRAD SCHOOL! And I want to tell you about it’s (unintended?) side effects.

Let me start with a quick comparison of a snapshot of my grades [click the image to enlarge] to indicate how much I enjoyed my graduate studies (urban planning) in comparison to my undergrad (commerce + German). Being in a program I actually enjoyed helped me apply myself to my courses and assignments better, and helped me retain the information I learned. I had FUN in the majority of my classes, and find myself wishing I had the resources to get another degree in the same field.

ANYWAY, let me tell you about some of my realizations now that I’m finished! 

A Realignment of Values

Through the course of learning about city planning, urban design, and everything else that came with my degree, I reinforced some long-standing values I’ve had throughout my life, and gained some new ones that will hopefully help me be a better person overall. I’m not going to get into the details about how these realizations came about because I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty of my studies, but here’s a little overview:

1. I reinforced the awesomeness of my favourite modes of transportation: Walking and the train! I’ve always preferred to walk places – walking to my high school instead of taking a bus, always living within walking distance of a train station and grocery store, and even forcing my friends to walk 20 minutes back to our hotel in 44 degree Celsius weather at 4am in Las Vegas. Clearly we had been drinking, but even drunk me still prefers to walk places.
2. Consideration for other people: I’ve noticed that common sense is in fact not that common these days, and consideration of our impact on other people and the world around us is also not very common. I always thought my constant consideration for my impact on…. everything else… came from my depression and feeling like a burden to everyone in my life. But no! It is in fact a key quality of a planner/urban designer. This also involves constantly considering how to bring about positive change or a benefit for the greatest number of people, while ALSO constantly thinking of the typically unconsidered – aka the “little guy.” School increased my overall consideration for general humanity.
3. Sustainability: I love recycling. Always have. But like most other people I forgot about the other R’s – REDUCE AND REUSE. I am more conscientious of reducing my overall ecological footprint by reducing the amount and frequency of purchases, and also reusing as much as I can at home. I am incentivized by “bring your own container” type situations (like growler refills for local craft beer), try to always use my reusable bags, and choose products with better/less packaging if possible – these are some examples of simple changes I’ve noticed in my life. This drive towards being a more sustainable person also comes from the existential guilt school has instilled on me, so take that how you will.

Becoming More Hands-On

I REALLY liked working in the shop whenever I could. I may have minimal woodworking/building experience overall, but damn did I love building models in school. Because of this, I find that I am much more interested in doing things myself, especially around the house. I want to fix things on my own rather than call a professional, I have all these new ideas on what kind of things I want to build for the backyard, instead of throwing something out I think about how I can re-purpose it or modify it to fit some other need I have. This also works with the sustainability value I mentioned previously (you know, the whole reuse thing), and I get excited about thinking about all these fun things I can DO! I’m also constantly looking for ways to make things better in the world around me by putting these new skills to use – most recently I got tired of all my little plants on every surface around the house so I made some hanging planters out of string and put them up in my windows instead, and I also immediately sewed my own face mask for covid which was very handy. If you don’t know how to hand sew, you NEED TO LEARN.

Better Habits… Most of the Time

The busy-ness of grad school while trying to maintain a semblance of a normal lifestyle (as in proper eating, sleeping, and doing non-school stuff) lead to me developing some habits that make me more productive…. for the most part.

1. The Five Minute Rule: You can find different versions of this all over the internet, but mine relates to “if something can be done in less than 5 minutes, I’m going to do it right now”. This helps me fight off procrastination with small things, like unloading the dishwasher, sending emails, or even cleaning things here and there. Like recently, I thought I should really dust the top of my fan blades in the bedroom and almost resigned myself to doing it next time I vacuum, but I reminded myself it would be quick so I did it right then. New car insurance papers came in the mail? Better file those away RIGHT NOW! Some days I will get so many ‘5-minute things’ done that it leads to me feeling accomplished and like I’ve had a very productive day. Even if it’s been pretty average.
2. What can I do RIGHT NOW to make my life easier in the future?: This one relates back to the Five Minute Rule in that it helps me fight procrastination but is used on longer projects. This one really helped me manage my time successfully with my classes and helps me stay on top of life stuff as well. It really just involves getting things done when I have the ability to do them – also properly referred to as “front loading” a project – so I have less to do closer to a deadline and more flexibility for changes or additional work throughout whatever I’m doing. I find this applicable to home as well, not just school and work!
3. Skipping a day: Unfortunately I did develop some not-so-healthy habits, especially the habit I call “skipping a day.” This is what I do when I get so overwhelmingly stressed out but have reached a point in my schedule and workload where I can take some time off – I skip an entire day by napping a lot, ignoring my phone, going for walks with my dog, and playing video games. I know this isn’t a “good” behaviour, but I find it is my most effective way of de-stressing and getting back to baseline. And I’m not harming anyone, even myself, so I think it’s fine. 

A Sense of Community

One thing that I absolutely did not have before entering my program was a broader sense of community… with anyone. Of course I had my small communities, like my gym friends and people I game online with, but I never felt I was part of any other general or public community, or even the human race as a whole. I still feel like an outsider in most situations, but I’ve began to develop a sense of community and comradeship in multiple new places in my life: I feel like a part of the actual physical community I live in right now, I feel like a part of more political and ideological communities that align with my values, I felt (and will always feel!) a sense of community in my classmates that I had never felt before. Turns out the struggle of grad school really brings you together! But overall, my general frame of mind changed from “I” to “we”. It’s a welcome change of mindset and makes me feel like I have a bit more purpose in life.

Never Stop Learning

Ultimately, these days I find myself asking “how?” and “why?”more often – like a toddler that’s just learned how to talk, I want to know what makes EVERYTHING tick. I am most comfortable and happy when I can learn on my own and use my creativity to solve problems, so my biggest takeaway from school is to try to incorporate aspects of learning + creativity into every area of my life!

Going back to school was awesome – one of the greatest decisions I ever made. I feel lucky to have been able to study something I feel so passionate about, even though I harbour some guilt over the belief that I never would have been able to go back to school if certain tragic events didn’t happen to me.

But dwelling on the past helps no one, and it’s time to move forward into my new future.