I have enjoyed my time in Calgary. It has brought many opportunities for Dan and I, and we have accomplished much here. Dan was able to go to school and obtain a College Diploma. I completed my Ballet Teacher Certification with the Royal Academy of Dance. We started a family and now have three beautiful children. We have both had success with work (more or less) and always had opportunities for change and growth. We have met wonderful people here and made great friends. We have even had my family join us in living in the west. All is all it has been a good experience.
However for the past year or so Dan and I have had it in the back of our minds that we need a change. At first I thought that I was finally getting a little bit bored of being in the same place. (Though I lived in the same city for all of my childhood and teen aged life we moved around so much in the first 4 years of marriage that I grew somewhat accustomed to experiencing different places.) But as the past year has gone by I have found myself contemplating moving more and more frequently. I always thought that I would be happy to live in a big city but lately I have really been wondering how I would adapt to a quieter pace of life.
The city that I grew up in is what I would identify as the perfect size (360,000 people.) I probably feel this way because I have a lot of good memories there, but I absolutely love London Ontario. It is lovely and has all the amenities and offerings of a big city without all the size, traffic and expense. Of course it's not perfect, but when I think of home this is the first place that comes to mind. I have also been thinking about even smaller communities (aka Sechelt- a place we were pretty serious about moving to last year) and what life wold have to offer us if we were to live there.
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So I'm curious what your experience has been- about where you have lived, where you grew up, what you think is best for your kids and what works for your family. I really hope that all of you will give me some feedback because I think in making a decision like this it is nice to look at your options from many different perspectives. I'm hopeful that in hearing your stories I might feel more inspired to figure out where we want to be!
One thing I've learned after living a few places is that you can't have it all. No matter where I am, I will miss things about other places I've lived or even travelled. When we moved to Calgary, the deal was that we would be in and out in less than 3 years. I couldn't get out soon enough. The first few months were a culture shock because I had never lived in the suburbs before. I hated having to drive everywhere, not interacting with a wide cross-section of people, not walking anymore (obviously you can go for a walk, but it's not the same as walking to get somewhere), only seeing the 20 people I worked with, etc etc. 3 1/2 years later, I made Dave rank Calgary first for residency. Of course my life changed substantially in that time - you know, kids - so that made a big difference, but I had also discovered many good things about Calgary - partially due to a concerted effort to do just that. Besides being a family-friendly city (compared to other big cities), Calgary's advantages for us are things like excellent career connections for Dave (and me, really), lots of research funding, Daves family (free baby sitters ha!), a big international airport with direct flights to lots of places, including NY, reasonable taxes, lots of diversity if you actually go to the NE haha etc. And there's way more open spaces and green spaces here than where I grew up, so that's no issue for me. By no means do I think this city is right for everyone - there are big disadvantages too {ahem REAL ESTATE cough cough}. And others too, that I just intentionally ignore. I feel like it is just so personal for each family. I am sometimes amazed that I havent gone stir crazy in this town, but I guess kids really change everything. We are really cautious and Dave is a major planner, so we would never be brave enough to move to a new place without a plan in place (like a job), but I know lots of folks are! They are freer spirits than us! Anyway, now that I've rambled on for an essay or two...I don't have any answers. Change is hard, but also good if it's the right change. And for me, focusing on the good is KEY. {That's why I try super hard to not complain about winter even though I'm a summer-lovin girl through and through!}. Good luck making big decisions!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't wait to get out of my small town, and moved here when I was 18. I loved Calgary for a long time, but now I am sort of over it. Rachel is right, kids do change things, and I find myself wanting to go back to a smaller town (for them). But I DO love that the mountains here are super close, and Calgary does have a lot of things that smaller towns don't have in way of recreation...but small towns also have things that big cities don't as well. Like Rachel said, it just comes down to personal preference and you really can't have everything, unfortunately. Good luck in deciding!
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