A Place Called Home

I remember sitting in my car with Tim, late one night.  We were eating take out McDonald’s and we were talking about the possibility of me moving.  He’s moved around a fair bit in his life and has finally settled down in Winnipeg.

He told me some things which only now are starting to become quite poignant.

“People are just people, no matter where they are.”

It’s true.  Waiting in line at the grocery store I just watch people going about their daily lives.  They didn’t wait for me to come from Winnipeg.  They don’t know who I am, and most of them have never seen the place I call home.  Their lives have been here, and they’re doing what they can to stay afloat.  It’s beautiful in its own right.

“Every city has it’s own culture.”

While people are people, it cannot be denied that each city has a distinct feel.  I picked up on this on my road-trip, but those were short times at notable cities like Chicago and Montreal.  But after a month in Edmonton I can see what Tim was talking about.  Conversations tend to go a different path with different points of reference.  People have different histories than the ones you’re used to hearing.  And people genuinely act differently, sometimes better sometimes worse.  But at the end of the day it’s a new place with its own rituals.

“You need to completely escape your life before you can see it with any real context.”

This is the one that echoes the most.  As I find new friends, learn new routes around the city, start to memorize the scenery of my new city and my new life, I can look back on where I came from with a scope I never could before.  You can’t read your story until it’s been told, can’t see a life for what it is while you’re living it.  And as I prepare to visit a place called home, I’ve begun to reflect on just what that means to me.

I was too hard on myself.  I always felt like I was failing.  I never felt good enough.  But looking back I see what a great life I’d accumulated.  Despite a rocky history, my family has pulled together and we all love each other.  I’ve found and kept some of the best friends a guy could ask for, some of them have stuck around for years.  I can be an idiot, I can make stupid mistakes.  But they’ve stuck around through thick and thin.  And even now, thousands of kilometers away, they’re still there for me.  And I feel privileged to be there for them.

I’ll see you all soon, as I visit a place called home.