When people say Toronto is vibrant and diverse, they’re dead serious. I love walking through the city at night and seeing how different it is- Toronto night life is amazing. And everything they say about the violence- it’s not all that bad. Going to the Beaches Jazz Festival and staying out until 2am, then taking the streetcar back is one of my fondest memories. It’s so true about how nice people are there, and how the strange is completely normal. No one cares if you look different or if you have an accent or anything.

I love going to Kensington Market on the last Sunday of the month- one time, some people were working on Capoeira beside a car that had been ‘reclaimed’ by nature.

Walking down the Danforth is amazing as well, spending a day in the Toronto Reference Library, spending hours in the ROM, and eating hot dogs from the street vendors, hoping you don’t die… it’s great fun. I have to say, Toronto is absoloutely amazing, and I cannot wait to somehow get there. I really want to work or live there at some point, take the TTC everywhere, and just experience Toronto. It would be amazing. (:

And I can totally related to you wanting to leave because of your comfort. I’m exactly the same, and I really, really, want to ditch Canada and move to the United Arab Emirates if my dad gets a job there. It would be amazing if I could go to University there and learn Arabic. I know a tiny bit- a few phrases, the alphabet, how to write most of the letters, but not much. It would be an amazing experience, and something different!

I actually blogged about this a little while ago. I need change, and it’s weird being so used to a routine now. I revel in new situations, so I can completely relate to your sentiments.

In reply to your question, I think… I’ve always taken the hard way, haha. I have never been content with the ‘easy’ path (or what I instinctually perceive to be the easy path).

I can easily relate this to my high school experience. I applied for two high schools and was accepted into both, one being an IB high school and the other one for arts and the like. I chose the IB school, and I loved it. I relished the challenge, the knowledge that what I was learning was a grade (or two, in some cases) ahead of everyone else. But Math got me, and I took remedial math in summer school. I started to understand it, and thought, ‘hey, I can do this!’ But by then, I had dropped out of IB.

I reapplied to the art school, had to audition again, put a new portfolio together, and was accepted a second time. For my first year there, I missed IB. I hated how everyone was so lazy and thoughtless compared to my old friends, how people complained when they were assigned 30 questions of math. That would have been a blessing in IB, and I resented it a little.

In the next summer, I took my grade 11 math and found that I loved it. Now, I’m considering going into math for University, and I had hated it, detested it in IB.

Some things change a lot, and I think change is a very, very important part of ones life. Good luck to everything you’re doing, and I wish you well!

I’ll try to follow you to your new domain to try and keep up with you, since I’ve been reading your blogs for a while, admiring your layouts, but never really commenting. I thought I might, for once! (:

I’ve heard great things about Canada and someday I would like to visit myself.

Personally I dream about a free life. I talk about living freely. I tell others to follow their dreams and not let fear hold them back. But the sad truth is that I don’t live as I preach. I’m stuck and not so brave right now.

Anyway…I think your life would be good in either ways.
Let me tell you my story. I had a Mexican boyfriend when I was in college in the US (I was only 1 year college student in the US). In the long run we separated because of the distance after I went back to Japan. After several years passing, I looked back to see if I was right. I was opposite to your case. I judged the matter by reason, and I killed my inspiration or emotion for that decision. What if I chose to stay in the US and married to him? My life could be so different. But it does not mean I’m disappointed to the one I have currently. I chose to leave the US, accepting the high possibilities that I might break up with him, because I needed to work. I regretted many times against my decision, after several years since I lost him, but as time passed and I found it was OK. I gained so many other stuff.
So in your case, you may regret something in the near future against your decision, but at the same time you will gain something that you could never have done if you choose to stay now. Challenge your life, do not settle for easy & safe one!

I don’t mind taking the more “challenging” path in life, but my mom isn’t. I wanted to enroll in a different college, but one of her main reasons is that it was too far, and she would not let me stay in the hostel -__-

However, due to the current “standard” of my country’s level of education, if I want to pursue a degree I would have to go overseas. My mom opted for Singapore, just because it’s nearer -_-.

But I’ve always wanted to go to a place I’ve never been to before, all alone. I won’t know anyone there, and no one would know me.

It’ll exactly be like starting a new life, meeting new people – I want to experience the struggle of living alone, to taste just exactly how hard it is to survive on your own. To throw myself to total and complete independence. For some odd reason, the thought of …. expanding my horizons – if I can call it that – and just experiencing independence, excites me.

Maybe that day would come, soon enough

For some reason I feel like I understand what you mean, even though I’m not in college yet and never experienced living away from home. But if you have this kind of drive and ambition, then I trust you will be successful wherever you go (:

And you have one thing I’ve always wanted! A Western education. Bah.

Anyways, my family and I are waiting for our Canada papers. Two more years, two more years. This entry slightly made me look forward to moving there.