Driving into work today, I thought about what had happened since this day in 2004. June 18, I'm waving goodbye to my parents at the Ottawa airport. Less than six hours later, I touched down on this foreign, mountainous place where people hang out half-naked on the beach in the middle of a workday.
Before leaving Ontario, friends who knew I was a backpacking fanatic said I would love BC so much, I'd marry a mountain man and never come back. Love BC? Check. Marry mountain man? Check. Never coming back? Like on a runaway train on a one-way track!
So what has happened? Other than being offered crack on the bus and finding out my superpower is not teaching spoiled UBC students Shakespeare, here are some highlights:
- Finally got my useless, but impressive-sounding Masters degree
- Got my first paying job as an editor (nice to see my name in print!)
- Met my uncle, aunt and cousins for the first time
- Found the mountain man and got married
- In doing so, learned to swing dance, west coast style. Still working on lindy.
- Became a first-time aunt
- Saw my bro get married and disappear into the 'burbs of good 'ol Mississauga
- Found a great church; saw about 20 babies born within this time
- "Studied" at the beach a lot, often while sleeping in the sun
- Learned the Thriller dance with my favourite housemates
- Kayaked among a pod of porpoises in the wild
- Learned to drive stick - and love it
- Moved six times and have lived in Richmond, Kits (3 houses), Burnaby, New West, then East Van.
- Mourned the death of my 15-year-old Shih Tzu. Sniff. My dear little pooch!
- Hiked and camped in the Coast Mountain, Cascade, Rocky Mountain and Sangre de Christos ranges
- Shot a .22 in New Mexico
- Learned how to play the congas and the djembe
- Found that Once I Was the King of Spain. Moxy Fruvous' Bargainville never gets old even after 15 years of listening to it
I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
1 comment:
Woot! I'm personally SO glad that you are here in BC! :)
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