Let’s be honest a winter in the UK is long, grey and pretty miserable, we’re stereotyped around the world for our wet weather and once the sparkle of the festive season has worn off it can be pretty hard to find joy again until spring bursts into our lives again.
But imagine spending a winter in a place where it’s minus 35C, battling through a snow storm to get to work is an everyday experience and thermals in bed is a new way of life — welcome to a winter in Canada!
It’s been over 15 years now since I spent my 27th winter in Toronto but I learnt so many things while I lived there which still have such an influence on my life today and in this post I’m going to share these life lessons with you too!
You can do hard things, even if it feels impossible!
Ok what I’m about to say is going to seem a little crazy considering the tittle of this post - I HATE SNOW, WITH A PASSION! So why did I willing spend a winter in a country where snow came in an abundance in this season? Well, because I wanted the adventure, and truth be told I didn’t really take on board how much snow it would be - I was in my twenties after all!
But my point to all of this is that the snow did fall, for months, and months, and I had to manage living my life around it. Going to work on public transport with all the pitfalls that snow brought to that, buying my groceries and getting them home by foot, shovelling the drive and sidewalk, arranging to meet friends and go bar hopping in 3 feet of the white stuff and then also having to arrange alternative accommodation when the water pipes in my apartment froze and burst!!
At that point in my life I hadn’t really had to deal with too many stressful adulting issues as I'd either been in college or working as a live in nanny but here I was thousands of miles away from my family and friends, having to deal with all this stuff by myself. It felt scary because I was in a different country and you’ll be surprised at how just life admin and issues vary from one part of the world to another so I had rely on myself to figure it out, plus I didn’t have the convenience of the internet, delivered food shopping, Uber or know a 24/7 plumber!
Rising to these and many other challenges gave me a sense of confidence and self efficacy that I was capable of handling the hard stuff when it came my way!
Some people are only meant to be in your life for a short time!
I meet and made some really amazing friends in my time living in Canada that I’m still in touch with today and one my Canadian friends is even godmother to all 3 of our children! Sadly though some people I was friends with at that time are no longer in my life and it was a time when I started to learn a lot about toxic friendships/relationships. I truly believe that the people we meet and the relationships we build are all there to teach us something about ourselves. How we interact in friendships shapes who we are and gives us a sense of boundaries so when some of them leave us feeling less than it shows us what we value not only in other people but in ourselves too. This was a time when I learnt that it is always ok to walk away from people if your life if your relationship with them is hurting you, some times, like boyfriends, some friendships are just not meant to be forever.
Open yourself up to possibilities, always!
This is truly something worth learning, because we’re always afraid of the unknown aren’t we and that means we miss out on stuff that can actually be quite amazing! Toronto is the biggest metropolitan city in Canada (not to be confused with the capital which is Ottawa!) and there was always somewhere to go, something to see or something to do! I was lucky enough to experience so many amazing things while I lived there - I tried new food, went ice skating, attended a film festival, went on lots of dates, worked 3 jobs and travelled all over a city I barely knew plus so much more. If I had been too scared to say yes to these things I wouldn’t have meet the people I did or experience the things I did. It really was one of the most special, most memorable years of my life, despite all the snow and freezing cold weather through the winter! My time in Canada showed me that when you open yourself up to possibilities in life, even if it pushes you out of your comfort zone, you never know what magic might happen in your life!
*Disclaimer - the picture of me above is not from the winter I spent in Canada in 2004/5 as I sadly didn’t have a camera or camera phone back then! These picture we’re taken in November 2012 on my honeymoon in Ottawa and are the closet pictures I have of me in Canada in winter - but I still look really cold right?!
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