My Master of Environmental Studies is finally coming to a close. It's been awhile since I've been able to write for the sake of pleasure. It's hard to find time for blogging sometimes. I am craving reflexivity and the medium of the blog offers that with grace. I'm not talking about blogging for hits, which is what I used to embrace and track with glee. One of the reasons that blogs are so political is because they are so personal. To be able to step back from life and reflect and feel heard by your peers. Lately my reflections are taking me to a crossroads. After researching mobile communications for two years I feel drawn to get out of the books and create. A thousand ideas buzz around my head, yet the tools that I've learned to implement are rusty. Academia sometimes means that instead of practicing ideas you're simply recording them. Praxis is calling to create something big. A movement, a new frontier, a network, a mashup, a revolution; the next big thing. My inner digital producer is calling, cajoling, reminding me of why I do the work that I do. August will be a telling month depending on what direction calls. Yet part of me digs into my roots. Working directly with youth is one of my passions. Does creating the next big thing require working with a mothership; merging existing infrastructure, creating partnerships, building in conjunction with multiple teams of developers, or does it mean starting something new? I think these are questions that we all face at one point or another in our lives. Many of us decide to settle for big pay checks with big agencies. Others say no to bosses and create new collective visions. Sometimes working within larger systems means that you have to work slower, jumping hoop by hoop to implementation. There is value to learn from order, but sometimes it's small startups that really hit the ground running.