Worlds

It's hard, it's sad to leave a place but it's so exciting too. It feels like a fresh start, new hope, new life, new opportunities every time you move somewhere new. 

But this is also what makes leaving a place sad: I realize all the possibilities, all the potential in terms of relationships and experiences that weren't fulfilled. 

But I try to say farewell to a place with sentiments of thanksgiving so when I return to that place in memory or in body, I can view it with this filter of thanksgiving.

Another new province. 

I always wondered why I bothered taking French in high school and why we were forced to every year up until Grade 9 but now I'm glad I did (I might try writing these posts in French going forward while I'm here in Quebec, at least try it).

I moved into my new place last night. $375/month rent made a lot more sense than $560/month rent which is why I decided to move again during a pandemic. 

Even though it's just across the river from where I was, it was only a 45 minute trip* in total to move myself from the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa to the Hull neighbourhood in Gatineau, it's a whole new world.

*(except the second trip where I wanted to take an Uber from the O-Train station to the new house because I was carrying so much stuff but couldn't get one, then missed the 85 bus that goes across the bridge, then called a taxi once I got over because it was close to 8pm and the Quebec provincial government put in an 8pm curfew in CO.VI.D. hotspots so I didn't want to get caught and have to pay the fine of possibly thousands of dollars for walking around after curfew - so that trip took more like 105 minutes)

But as I've been walking around my new neighbourhood, it's been astonishing to realize how many "worlds" there are even within this city, within this one neighbourhood, even within the house I'm living in since it has 18 rooms for people to live and different arrangements of washrooms and kitchens scattered throughout it.

Every neighbourhood, every street, every pathway, every room, every relationship, every conversation, every act of communication, every moment, every viewpoint, every sense, every state of consciousness, is it's own world - but it's also all one world at the same time.

Life can be so much fun.