Six months on… reflection

Warning: I’m feeling emotional.

Yesterday I posted a review of my first six months in the True North. It’s been busy, exciting and definitely memorable.

Today, I want to take a moment to be thankful, emotional and a little soppy. You have been warned.

People say your life has key turning points, moments where things can go one of two ways- the decision is up to you. I had reservations about this trip. It would have been so easy to just back out, to change my mind and stay in England, take another job and keep going as I have been for the last five years. But I had made a promise to myself, to do something different with my life. And I didn’t want to let myself down.

Thank goodness I didn’t.

It’s hard to describe just how different I feel after six months in a new world. Last year was tough, I’ve never been shy about admitting that. I didn’t like where things were in my life for the last 6 months of 2018. But if, in that time when I was struggling, someone had told me that a year later, I’d be feeling this good. I couldn’t have believed it.

Right now, I feel like one of the luckiest people alive. I’m sat watching the sun set over Toronto with joy in my heart. I still have wonderful friends (old and new) back home, who have made more effort than I could have asked of them to stay in touch. My family stay by my side no matter where in the world I am. I’m working a job I thoroughly enjoy (something you don’t always get to do) which gives me the opportunity to travel the way I have dreamed of for so long. And I have met some wonderful, supportive, kind and caring people who I hope will be a part of my life for a long time.

Yes, things are very different from a year ago. Yes perhaps not everything has survived so well. But honestly, sometimes in life you have to learn the leave things behind for your own good. It’s tough, but it’s better in the long run.

All I know is right here, right now, Toronto is home. And I want it to be for a while to come.