All I knew was that the meeting was in a small building on the campus of Royal Roads University. I figured I would arrive and the building would just be there, waiting for me. Not exactly.

This photo is of Hatley Castle, situated in the middle of the Royal Roads campus. It’s a national historic site and is surrounded by dense forrest, various buildings housing different departments and faculty scattered throughout. M works in Student Services, and I often jokingly ask her what it’s like to work at Hogwarts.

The building I was after turned out to be situated at the very back of the campus (of course). I found out rather quickly I had some walking to do.

Then the rain started. Great.

Guiding me through the woods was a tiny map which was attached to an email that was in my phone that was in front of my face. I huddled under ridiculously tall trees, protecting my screen from the rain and pinch-zooming in and out of said map, switching back and forth to Google Maps to confirm I was on the right path.

As I started to get wet, I started to get angry. I wondered what the hell I was doing in the middle of a forrest at 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. I became convinced this was all a complete waste of time, and thought about the projects I could be working on instead of trudging through the woods and rain.

I eventually found the building. I met who I needed to meet. I talked about my work and went over my portfolio with wet hair and damp socks. Afterwards I met a friend who works on campus. She tells me the building I was just in used to be a barn, and there used to a be a bar and a few pool tables in the room upstairs. Some days she wishes the bar was still there.

I can’t put a finger on yesterday. It was simply a day in which I was in a different place than I usually am. But I ended up with this photograph, so contrary to the conviction I held while walking through the woods and rain, the experience was not a complete waste of time.

Few are.