What April Means To Me

September 28, 2017

In neo-pagan terms April is half-way through the year with October 31st being new years eve to many of us. April is a month symbolic of new growth, re-birth and fresh starts.

April has two meanings for me personally. April and August seem to be when most of the path altering events occur in my life.

The first, as you will read below, is the significant number of personal, in some cases, life changing events that occurred in April.

The second meaning for the word April was that it is the name of a girl I knew in high school. We met in art class and for the year had one of those ‘love to hate’ relationships. I wouldn’t say that we hated each other, really, we were more like brother and sister or cousins. Shifting from that comparison I did find her attractive and wish we had dated but the challenge, other than our clashing personalities, was that I was attracted to a friend of hers. Ah high school, the birthplace of drama.

April 1989 met my first girlfriend

I can remember that day like it was just last week and yet it was 28 years ago. I rode my bike down to the park, or I’d walked maybe, that part isn’t entirely clear. I remember she was sitting on the footbridge to the man-made island reading one of those romance novels. I remember finally getting up the nerve to say hello to her. I remember playing shadow tag with her at the front of my house when my parents came home.

April 1989 kissed a girl really for the first time

The same girl I met who then became my first real girlfriend. We lasted for 6 months. It had already ended while we were both working at a summer resort but I ended it the week I was going to start college.

April 1990 left college after completing my first year

I graduated my first year but had struggled the entire time with depression and decided I should leave school, a decision I would later regret for several years.

April 1994 lost my virginity

Yes, I was 23, I lost my virginity during a weekend visit with the woman who would later become my first wife.

April 1994 wrote the theory of subconscious thought and time shifting

A graph and theory that, while I have in my possession the original copies, I have been unable to replicate. The theory is a simple chart explaining the time shifts that occur between the subconsciousness and reality. I was quite actively involved in 1994 in writing theories and explanations for how one could fall into the cracks between time. A graph I drew up in the nineties later matched to an equation by Dirac, even though I had never read or heard of the mathematician before.

April 2003 officially divorced from my first wife

After eight and a half years of a most disappointing, deceptive, disloyal, degrading marriage I asked for a divorce on November 8, 2002. I left on March 30 and the divorce was official in April 24. I believe she got re-married, to her fourth husband, two weeks later.

April 2003 reunited with a close friend after nearly a decade

I followed the signs to find and reunite with a friend whom I had fallen in love with a decade before, months before I met my first wife. Unfortunately, our relationship was never meant to follow that path and in April 2013 we went our separate ways when I moved out west.

April 2008 played casino slots for the first time

I was visiting a girlfriend, or a woman who would be my girlfriend (I think we might have lasted about 3 months at most), and stopped in at the racetrack casino in London. I gambled and lost about $50.

April 2009 opened my bookstore

After leaving Canadian Tire in March for a job that lasted about a week and then falling ill for a week that landed me in hospital I decided to open my own bookstore. It seemed like a good idea at the time and would have succeeded had I just moved to Hanover months before I did.

April 2011 closed my bookstore

After fighting a debt for almost a year I lost and went bankrupt at $16,250 in debt. The ending result was the closing of my store, losing my apartment and ending up on welfare (for the first and hopefully only time ever in my life). I still tell people that, after my divorce, going bankrupt was the best thing to ever happen to me in my life. It gave me a fresh start and I haven’t looked back or fallen in debt since. Another unexpected advantage to going bankrupt is that scammers avoid your credit like the plague. I’m quite happy to not have a credit card or loan or mortgage.

April 2013 saw mom alive for the last time

After a two-year battle with breast cancer my mom ended up in hospital for the last time. We all knew that the end was coming soon. I said my goodbyes to her “see you later” I recall saying. She died in early May.

April 2013 left Ontario for my quest for the west

Two days after visiting my mom in hospital for the last time I began my “quest for the west” as I called it. April 15 marked the first day of a 30-day drive that paused for a few months just east of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta at a summer resort. I worked there until September and then continued to the Pacific Rim on Vancouver Island and the completion of my personal goal to reach the Pacific Ocean.

April 2017 left Alberta to return to Ontario

After leaving my job in February, and two months of unemployment I decided to return to Ontario. At first, I went for a visit, with the intent of returning to Alberta or B.C. but after 2 weeks in Ontario I made up my mind to stay. I think the 3.5% unemployment rate verses 9% in Alberta might have played a significant role in that decision.

April 2017 met a friend in Winnipeg

While this doesn’t seem significant I’ll explain why it is. I’ve been playing in the metaverse since 2008 and in that nearly 10 years I’ve met a lot of people, probably hundreds, virtually but never in person. Anna, her avatar name, is the first person I have ever met who was involved in the grids that I have been.