*Whew* What a busy week!

Much of this past week has involved finalizing plans for future trips/activities. As of this week, I have many things to look forward to in the coming months! Let's go in order, shall we?

March 30: Road trip to Montana for an extended long weekend to go skiing, shopping and vegging.
April 18: Coldplay concert with ROW 6 VIP SEATS!!!
April 21: Alberta Wilderness Association's Earth Day run and climb for wilderness. I will be climbing the 802 stairs in the Calgary Tower to raise money and awareness for wilderness conservation efforts in Alberta.
April 25: National Geographic Live! presentation with photographer, Mattias Klum.
May 11: Black Keys concert!!
And then the biggest one, is still a long way off..but I don't care!
July 5, 2013 - We're heading to Borneo for 3 weeks!! 2 weeks will be spent volunteering at an Orangutan sanctuary, then we'll spend a week traveling around and exploring on our own. I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!! One of my dreams since I was in my primatology days was to see Orangutans in the wild, and I'll finally get the opportunity! I can pretty much guarantee I'll be a bawling mess the first time I see them navigating through the trees.
How could you not adore this face:

 Is it too soon to start packing?? ;)

Back to reality

Well, Christmas holidays are now over. Tomorrow, I go back to work after 2 glorious weeks of friends, food, family, and a vacation thrown in as well. I must admit - I'm not looking forward to it at all!
Lately, I've been feeling like I'm in the middle of a quarter life crisis. I love my job, I love teaching. But I feel like it's not satisfying me enough. I feel like I could be doing more. If only I could find a way to marry my two passions - Education and Conservation - I think I could hit the jackpot. So, I went searching...I found an organization in Ontario called Down to Earth Conservation Education. It looks amazing! So, I've sent them an email with some inquiries and now I have to wait to hear back from them. My worry is that they are solely based out of Ontario. Being in Alberta, and with no option of moving at this time - that will be the biggest problem. If only I knew how to create one of these organizations here in Calgary, I would SO do it!

I think it is so important for our kids to understand the importance of conservation, and the impacts that we have on the natural world around us. I'm just about finished reading a book by Richard Louv called "Last Child in the Woods" about how our kids are growing up in a world with a nature deficit, and that they are no longer feeling a strong connection to the natural world. This saddens me, because I remember when I was growing up, all of the hours I spent outside building forts with my friends, making mud pies after if rained, hunting for frogs near the sloughs that were by my house. Most of my cherished memories as a kid are when I was outside exploring the world. And to think that kids are no longer experiencing that, and that they have no connection to all of the deforestation and loss of species that is occurring because of US makes me want to cry. If I could do something to bring that awareness back, I feel like that would be my calling. My purpose. But how?