Graeme Esau, MA

University of Ottawa convocation at the National Arts Centre.

Ladies and gentleman, allow me to (re)introduce you to my husband, Graeme Esau, Masters of Arts in Public and International Affairs. If you are not prepared to read a post consisting largely of bragging, perhaps it is best that you take this opportunity to spend some quality time outdoors instead.

Prior to our engagement in March 2010, Graeme and I had been seriously talking about him attending grad school. He had a stable job that he quite enjoyed, but he was bored. The man needs a challenge. Since near the end of his undergrad, Graeme had been toying with the idea of going back to school. Being the intelligent man that he is, Graeme started inquiring into grad school, having already narrowed things down significantly (aka: applying to only two programs).

So we were engaged, and spent a few weeks knowing absolutely nothing about our lives post-August 22nd (other than knowing we'd finally live in the same place). Would I move to Alberta and Graeme would continue working at EPSS? Would Graeme move to BC while I continued teaching? Would we move to Ontario for grad school and have no known source of income or support network?

If you're reading this blog, you know that we ended up pursuing what was probably the most terrifying and also most rewarding option of the three.

Annual GSPIA gala at the National Gallery of Canada.

 Certainly the past two years haven't been all smooth sailing. There were plenty of obstacles (delayed acceptance into the co-op program, taking Microeconomics entirely in French, to name a couple), but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Graeme thrives in an academic environment. He doesn't get stressed easily, he loves discussions with people of different viewpoints, he's an excellent writer, he's extremely determined and hard-working. Clearly, grad school was the perfect choice. If that wasn't obvious enough to begin with, Graeme ended up as one of the few (read: less than ten) students in his program to convocate in June rather than October.

There were obviously sacrifices we both had to make, especially when it came to spending time together. Thankfully, after leaving my part-time job, I was able to spend a lot of evenings at Bridgehead with Graeme while he finalized his major research paper. My love of reading combined with excellent coffee was actually a godsend for our relationship.

My husband, who is barely twenty-six-years-old, has already finished six years of post-secondary education, and finished those years well. I am the proudest wife on the planet.

--- chRistie