The Young Planners Group of the American Planning Association, Northern California Section hosted a networking/mixer/lecture event to showcase different ways urban planners can utilize social media to better engage the communities they work and live in.
I know I've gone on a rant about how I've recently discovered that urban planning was the wrong path for me, so I'm just as surprised as you are that I found myself at this event. Honestly, I think I only found myself here because I'd get free food and beer if I volunteered to help (and free food and beer did I get).
But I had a realization last night. I know I've continued to beat myself up over how I don't feel like I've progressed and how my life has been at a sort of standstill. And for as long as I'm still working my soul-crushing 8-5, I will still be. But amongst seeing all the familiar faces, names, bosses, and classmates from the various city governments, planning agencies, and classes I've dabbled with in the past year, I realized that I actually had progressed. I was going somewhere. I made a decent dent in the urban planning industry here in the Bay Area. It's just that on my way to the party, I changed my mind and turned the car around (or since I'm talking urban planning here, I transferred to the next train going the opposite direction).
The fact that I was able to still network with these folks and offer my contacts and resources to those who are still trying to break into the field was a bit of a relief for me, actually. I don't think I'll ever be working in the field with these folk ever again, but at least I know I wasn't completely complacent in the past year. It's just a damn shame that in the end, it was almost all for naught.
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