I'm not sure the exact date we arrive in Iqaluit, which is a touch frustrating because I'm normally pretty good with dates. However, I think August 24 marks the fifth anniversary of our arrival in Iqaluit.
That makes it five years for me, but Cathy had the extra year in Rankin Inlet, so she's actually spent six years in Nunavut. However, moving it Iqaluit was the major shift in our life, so that's kind of the one we keep track of.
When we first decided to move to Nunavut we came up with a five year plan. That unless things went catastrophically bad, we would give Nunavut five years to see if this was the place where we wanted to stay. Towards the end of that five years we would make a decision - move on or re-up. Well, we bought a house last year so we're committed for another five years at least.
The last five years have worked pretty well for us. Yes, there were ups and downs, but there's no doubt that at the end of the five year plan we are much better off then when we arrived. When we left Newfoundland we were frustrated and broke. I was 35 and Cathy was 27 and it just felt like our lives were in stall mode. I wasn't happy with the Express and Cathy just wanted to teach on a regular basis. She was getting frustrated scrounging for substitute teaching and maternity replacement positions, and adding in some tutoring to help pay the bills.
We wanted to get on with our lives and we couldn't see how we could make that work in Newfoundland. At that point, I'd also spent most of my life in Newfoundland. A lot of my friends had moved on to try other things. I was beginning to feel like if I didn't get out soon and start to do something with my life, it was never going to happen. I was going to be a frustrated and bitter journalist. Which has a certain charm in your 20s, but I've seen what that looks like in people in their 40s and 50s and I assure you, it's not pleasant.
So yes, Nunavut. All Nunavut has given us are careers that have made us happy, introduced us to a new culture and way of life that we knew little about before. It's gotten me back into curling, which I had forgotten about how much I loved. It's enabled us to save enough money to travel to California, the Caribbean, Italy and Australia. It's allowed us to buy a home.
It's allowed us to feel like we have a home. That feeling of transience and being unsettled that haunted us our last few years in Newfoundland are no longer with us. We're home.
That last five years were very good. Here's to the next five years being even better.
Last Five
1. Stupid girl - Garbage
2. Tea - Brendan Benson
3. Foreground - Grizzly Bear
4. Black helicopters (live) - Matthew Good*
5. Supersonic - Pearl Jam
6 comments:
Congratulations.
well written, when ppl ask me when we plan to leave Nunavut, my answer is always I dont know, Nunavut has been good to us and its hard to leave..well not yet anyways. We will eventually get antsy and want to try somewhere else, but for now we are pretty comfortable with staying for a while.
Congratulations first of all. I for one am glad that you two are happy here. For purely selfish reasons, in that it's given me the opportunity to know and meet you both, and to count you amongst my friends.
So, aye, here's to another five years at least.
Congrats sir. Congrats indeed!
Awww, that's so sweet! I'm really glad that you truly love Nunavut! I swear one day I want to visit!!! It does sound like you actually live life in Nunavut, as opposed to living off of Nunavut. (If that even makes sense).
Enjoy, and yes, here's to another 5 years and MORE!
I can relate to where you were five year ago as that is where I am now. So here's hoping it will be a good fit for us too. Congrats! It's nice to be home.
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