Home is where the heart is

By Carlie Connolly

I’ve been in Alberta for around three months now, and it’s been a blast meeting new people, going to new places and new grocery stores… I’ve never been to a Safeway! All in all, it’s been a great time this far, but I have to say, its been a hard adjustment being away from my friends and family. These last few months have kind of felt like the first three months of University in the way in which you just have to let go of your family and go forward with your life. It’s also like learning a whole new way of life too as you have to get accustomed to a totally new and different environment where you are completely out of your comfort zone. I’ve moved around a lot in my life, but in the same province and in the same city… the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I guess you could say I’m good at adapting to different places, but still a major homebody liking my family and friends always nearby. I also said I’d never ever leave home, but that kinda changed. Toronto, Halifax, then off here to Alberta. It sure has been one heck of a ride!

Change is also something quite difficult for me; I’m someone that likes the familiar. The hot dog stand on the corner of Yonge and Bloor in Toronto, the crowded subway ride that made riding to work always interesting and the quiet Go train ride home to Oakville, waiting for my dad to pick me up on the other side. I also miss Sunday dinners where my family would get together and talk about our busy week and just be together; no cell phones and no one but each other. It’s a life that seemed like just yesterday and a life that was simple with no bills to pay and no idea about the real world.

Today, I’m hours away from home, a two-hour time difference, but still a phone call away and no longer a student, which was probably the best four years of my life, but life goes on and better things continue to come after hard work. Like my dad always said, “no pain, no gain.” Not that I’m in pain, just homesick, but he always drilled it into me that hard work and dedication really pays off and that the struggle is all a part of the journey.

It will only be a week and a half until I fly home to a new change, my family’s new home in Nova Scotia where I went to school for four years and fell in love with the city and with the love of my life. Life sure does have a way of working out. A nice house on the ocean, all my friends I’ve met in school and most importantly my family all together for Thanksgiving. I couldn’t be more thankful.

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