Moving Continents

I am moving to Canada. 

Over the past couple of weeks, since my Canadian boyfriend and I made the decision mid-January 2022, I have repeated that sentence a lot in my head. And to other people. Maybe because I still haven’t quite realized what’s happening. Maybe because I expect it to feel more real if I say it often enough.

So far, it hasn’t worked.

It’s a weird situation I haven’t quite processed at the time that I’m writing this in February. This isn’t even the first time we’ve considered Canada as our new potential home. Before I took my job in Munich, I also sent out applications to Canadian companies and organizations - without success, obviously. But if it had worked, we might have already lived in the “Great North” by now. 

One of the first questions people had for me when I told them the news was: “How did your parents react?” And the simple answer is: It wasn’t a surprise, really. 

I remember being around 14 or 15 years old, planning my year abroad in the U.S. and declaring to my mom “One day, I’ll emigrate”. I didn’t know where to, just that it was something I was interested in at the time already. From what I recall, my mom just shrugged and said “okay”. Not in a dismissive way. Just: Okay, if that’s where life takes you. 

I don’t know if she remembers that moment at all or if we remember it the same way, but it always stuck with me.

Perhaps it’s not the most typical dynamic - I hear from people often enough who are and always want to be physically close to their family. And when I talk to them, they can’t quite understand how you can be “close” and yet be perfectly fine only seeing each other a few times a year.

I’m sure it’d be great if we lived within driving distance, but it’s not necessary. Past the age of snail mail and in the age of video calls and mostly easy traveling, the physical distance just isn’t that important anymore. Plus, both my brother and I have lived abroad or further away on multiple occasions. My parents like to use their children as motivational factors for travel destinations (I’m joking, sort of). Although visiting Australia twice while my brother studied abroad and wrote his thesis was no coincidence.

Kangaroo Island, December 2012

So, when I told my mom we were going to try and move to Canada next, one of her first comments was something along the lines of “We haven’t been there yet, guess we know where to visit next!”.

And that’s pretty much the attitude my parents have towards me moving abroad summarized. At the end of the day, I almost think they were less surprised than me.

Either way, the reality is we’re moving. It might not be tomorrow, but I know it’ll happen in the blink of an eye. So why not document the process in a blog ;). Off to new adventures, eh?

To read more of my Canadian adventure, click here.