Enroute

Eight and a half years ago I stepped off of a flight which had brought me from the east coast to a place I would call home for the better part of the next decade. I can remember making that first step onto the jetbridge in Edmonton, saddened by what I had left behind but excited for what lay ahead. Nearly two weeks ago, I received news that I had been waiting on for a few years now, and though it has been more than eight years since the day has passed, I find myself feeling the same way now, as I did when I first stepped off of that flight eight years ago.

The past few weeks have been busy as I have tried to do as much packing as I could in between flights, and get-togethers with friends to say goodbye. I have welcomed the busy pace that the past few weeks have brought though, as it has distracted me from thinking about all that I will leave behind when I head east. The distractions however are temporary, all the feelings associated with leaving will be waiting for me when I get all the things that I need to get done, done. In my scarce free time the past few weeks when I have had a moment to think, I have found myself questioning whether or not I actually want to head east. I suppose there are a number of reasons for this; the move I am about to make is daunting, a bit frightening actually if I were to be completely honest. I am on the brink of pulling up the roots I have set in Edmonton, and setting off in the direction of a dream I have had since I first moved here, a dream of going home. Even while, when I do leave, I will be going back to friends and family that I have been missing for years, now as I finish packing, I can't help but think of those that I will be leaving behind.

I have been replaying the drive out of Edmonton over and over in my head over the past few days, and every time I do I feel a great sadness seeping in as I think back over the fond memories of my time here. I suspect it will be one of the harder things I will have to do in my life to not turn around as I hit the city limits. When I do leave though, it won't be thoughts of Whyte Avenue, or the downtown, or even the airport that will entice me to turn around, it will be the people that call this city home whom I have been so fortunate to call friends that will tug at my heart. It is with no exaggeration that I say that all of you that I have gotten to know, or gotten to know better since moving here, are what have made my time here as wonderful as it was, and it is to all of you that I owe a huge debt of gratitude for all of the memories I will take with me when I leave.

While it will be with great sadness that I will leave, I can assure you that, as Billy Connolly said, "there is a great deal of hope out there, it's not all bleak." There is no telling where this adventure I have teed up for myself will take me, and as much as it scares me, I like that. Whatever may come, good or bad, from here on in, will be entirely what I make it.
Where ever this adventure does take me, know that I will miss you all dearly, and I'll look forward to the day we meet again.


"It's staggering out there you know, it really is extraordinary, and kind-of bleak and weird, and it's going to get alot weirder, and the weirder it gets the happier I become..... You ain't seen nothing yet"- Billy Connolly