Vision of the Rockies as a child.

Dear Diary,

Finally, success! I managed to get the files on the Hittites working through my Kobo, so I have a significantly broader research base from which to do my assignment. Awesome! I am definitely choosing the Hittites, the Aztecs and (of course) the Roman Empire. Rome and Greece are so very interesting (to me at least).

This evening I watched a touching film, a classic: The Piano. Very moving.

Life is ... what it is. Viewing said cinematic masterpiece made me think about my dream as a child. Growing up in Ontario, I remember looking at the mountains and thinking to myself, “When I grow up I want to come out here, build myself a log-cabin, and live simply.” I might even pursue such a dream if things here go tits up. Were it not for my house, my studies and my dog, I might have even accepted my brother’s invitation to go stay with him; cut loose, and wandered the grizzly infested mountains, sowing seeds, building a cabin, hunting, fishing, gathering firewood. All I ever wanted, since the age of four, was to live a humble life in seclusion. Perhaps one day I will, perhaps not.

I was speaking to my friend the fiddler yesterday, who told me about his eldest. She has a degree (a first!) and can’t even find a job cleaning toilets, let alone follow her chosen career path. I wonder, I wonder, if having got my qualification (assuming I work hard enough to pass) whether I’ll even find a job? My grades are very average. It is unlikely I will ever make anything of myself. It would be nice to live somewhere quiet, in the wilderness, should my dream of becoming a teacher fail. I should like to sit and write, play music to the birds, grow vegetables and corn. Even during my dozen years on the road I drew up plans for precisely how to build the structure, what tools I would need, and how I should likely go about building my humble hut.

Didier would say, “You have not the right.” and lawfully, he would be correct. Yet if he had trodden in my shoes, if only for a month, he would soon realise that not having anywhere means you just crash out wherever you feel safe and warm. Right or no right, a man has to sleep after walking many miles in mountains carrying a 120 litre bergen. Aye.