Transitions

I used to be one of those people that would do anything to avoid sitting in front of a computer and this was the biggest reason why I never pursued a career in GIS upon graduating from university. Life has a funny way of bringing you full circle sometimes. Even before COVID I found myself sitting up to 8 hours plus a day in front of a computer teaching English online. I began to wonder what the difference was.

Another thing that sometimes bothered me about GIS is that it seems to be a great tool for studying things that I am passionate about, but didn’t give me the hands-on feeling of actually doing the work to solve the problem itself. What I mean by this is that GIS can be a great tool for analyzing various issues ranging from environmental problems to social inequality. But sometimes I found in my studies that the ins and outs of the technology took center stage over the particular problem that it was trying to solve. Becoming so enamored with the tool instead of the end result seemed quite silly indeed.

The war in Ukraine really did affect my thoughts on living in Eastern Europe. During the first few days of the invasion, thoughts of how to safely get my family out if it spread to other countries filled my mind. Teaching ESL in the US without Spanish seemed quite silly. It had been about 13 years since I first came to Bulgaria and about 5 since the last time I was home. It was a mixed feeling of feeling a bit homesick and curious whether I would feel like a foreigner in my own country.

GIS had always been the go to career option for geography majors. During COVID, I was surprised to see how many jobs were available. It seemed like great fit for the new remote work world. The only issue was that I was in desperate need of refreshing my skills and getting up to speed with the latest developments.

A graduate certificate course seemed like just the solution I needed as not only did I need to prove it to myself, but also to potential employers. The dilemma was whether to pursue it in Europe or America. Even though I am married to a Bulgarian and eligible for citizenship, recent changes in their law required that I would have had to give up my American citizenship. Not the best deal in my opinion. With that in mind, I was looking at “3rd country” tuition rates when shopping around universities in Europe. Basically, they were just as expensive as in the States.

Wading through the pros and cons of each school is no easy task. I talked with a lot of people and I asked for advice wherever I could. Eventually, one just has to make a choice and go with it. The entire process left me thinking that an awful lot is still missing in the way that we go about education.