I thought I'd write a little history about me so that those of you who don't know me very well can have a better idea of where I'm coming from. I will only hit the more interesting things here, so keep in mind that it is not everything I have ever done.
I was born in New Westminster and lived in Vancouver until I was seven years old. Then we moved up to Quesnel BC for half a year before moving 55 miles outside of Quesnel in the middle of the woods. It was November and below -20c and we lived in a teepee for a month until we got the walls built on our one room trailer with an addition. Needless to say this was quite the culture shock. We moved around to different places out of town until I graduated from high school. My best friend growing up was our 3/4 wolf dog named Grizz. Other pets included at times a baby bear, a racoon, and a cat named Homer who liked to beat up coyotes.
After graduating from high school with straight A's I had planned to go to BCIT to do a broadcast journalism program. Instead, I changed my mind and decided to join the carnival to save up money to go to a Wilderness Survival School. I still rate the courses I took there as the most amazing experiences I ever had. I took me two years to save up for my first course in California, which was focused on physical survival skills, and then one more year to save up for two more courses in New Jersey, which focused more on Native American Philosophy.
I then moved back to Quesnel where I worked at Panago, studied Nutritional Consulting through Alive Academy of Nutrition, and got involved with the Metis. I sat on the Metis board of directors as a youth rep, and got involved with traditional Metis step-dancing, performing at various venues and eventually teaching it. I grew tired of the cold Quesnel winters and moved to Mexico for 6 months to teach English. I found I wasn't a very good English teacher and moved back to Quesnel. I soon discovered internet poker and learned that I could make an acceptable amount of money at it.
Based on the knowledge that I could make money anywhere as long as I had an internet connection, I decided that to move to Victoria where the winters are very mild. I also moved here with the intention of getting involved with the Green Party. I quickly got involved with the party and became the campaign manager for candidate Ariel Lade in the 2006 federal election. Around the same time the competition in poker became much tougher so I had to get a real job again after the election. I ended up going to Panago to manage the Shelbourne location. After a year of that I moved to Toronto, Ontario for a few months to work in the MMP campaign for a proportionate electoral system in that province. When that campaign finished I came back to Victoria and took over the management of the Panago in Esquimalt.
It was at this time that I knew I needed a career instead of hopping from one thing to the next, so after a year at Esquimalt, I decided to go back to school and applied to UVic. I am now starting my 3rd year at UVic and I enjoy it very much. In the past two years I have started my own club where I teach wilderness survival skills to students. I have been involved in the Model UN Club, and I now sit on the UVSS board of directors.
Hopefully this has been a fun read for everyone!
Rob McDonald
Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School is a world renowned school that teaches wilderness survival skills and Native American Philosophy. Tom has written several books on the topic, which are how I found out about the school. His books opened my eyes to how our society is destroying our natural surroundings and the need to change our societal values in order to preserve the natural environment that sustains us. It is his books and classes that provide the guide force of my life and points towards the things I need to accomplish.
Hi Rob, thanks for sharing this, it's sounds like you've had an interesting life. My mother also studied with Tom Brown and took his tracking workshops many years ago. She also worked on a fire tower in the North West Territories and lived in tipi in the Kootenays where she was a cook at a healthy living retreat. This was all before I was born.
ReplyDelete