Just the (Hali)fax

Hello fair readers. Greetings from (intermittently) sunny Halifax!

I’m having a wonderful trip. For those of you not up-to-speed, I lived here for four years — only moving away in September when I decided to overhaul my life and head back to school for a Master’s degree at Queen’s.

It’s been a wonderful homecoming. This is a great city full of excellent people. I will confess that I was a little worried about what it would be like to come back — I was worried I’d be overcome with melancholy and regret at having left, along with small fears that I would feel disconnected from the world I once inhabited here.

Instead, I have been feeling incredibly happy and lucky to find that I have a great community here who have received me back with open arms. Sure, I’ve definitely had moments, in the past few days, where I have wondered (sometimes even aloud) why it is that I’m not living here.

But I’ve also had some interesting realizations — the first being, of course, that leaving a community physically doesn’t mean you’ve really left it for good. Sometimes you can go back.

Also, people have been commenting on how happy I seem to be and how Kingston must be treating me well. I think that’s a good sign. ‘Cause even though I’ve sometimes been just a little bit angsty/unconvinced about my decision to go back to school, all signs point to it being good for me. Forcing yourself to do something tough — move towards uncertainty, try new things, move to a new community — is very often worthwhile, in personal growth alone. Sorry to haul out a cliche, but seriously: I suppose what doesn’t kill you does make you stronger.

And hey- Kingston has been growing on me, too. As much as I love Halifax and my community here, a good friend did remind me that it didn’t all happen overnight. He pointed out that my first year and a half in the city I kept threatening to move back to Toronto. It really does take time and investment in a place before it really starts to feel like home.

Ok- I know it may seem like I am on a perpetual holiday, but that just ain’t the case. I’m off to the Dalhousie library now to continue the research I am doing for a Queen’s prof. I’ve got a borrowed bike, and I need to zip down to the campus before a particularly large, looming cloud dumps unleashes all kinds of wetness on the city.