Dear anonymous writer...
A question on Megan's blog got me thinking...
I don't know if I would have had the ability... or "soundness" of mind to answer that question a couple of months ago (yes, hard to believe I have been here almost 5 months)...
Actually, maybe I'm just in a good mood today.
Either way. I have my answer.
Why did I move to Nunavut?
Well this may be a cop-out answer... but "why not"?
I'm young, eager, and not really scared of the cold (not now that I have my Canada Goose parka). I have traveled parts of Europe, lived in France... 5 of our provinces and so... a window opened to the north and I crawled through.
It's cold.
It's remote...
But most days it's pretty darn cool too (yah yah, I'm punny)
I won't be here forever. But who knows what the next few years will bring. A year ago the north was a fleeting thought, and I remember thinking of it as a place where you "pay your dues" before moving on.
I don't really think that anymore. It's not about paying dues, it is about getting to do things I might not have the chance to do "down south." It's about having weekends off, and being a full-time reporter at 22. It's about holding onto this experience with both hands, squinting against the wild snow and wind.... and coming out the other end panting, out of breath, and totally exhilarated.
4 comments:
It's amazing how quickly your perspective of the North changes once you've lived here. We thought the same thing when we decided to take the job - "we'll come up for a few years to make money and then go back home" - now, we think of up here as "home" and can't imagine going back to "the concrete world".
I was in my last year of j-school when it really became obvious how hard it was going to be to get a job with CBC in any of the cities.
It became clear that I had no choice but to move north, but I felt confident that I could get work at one of the smaller stations. A good friend of mine was hired at the Rankin station right out of university just as Nunavut split off from the NWT, and another headed to Inuvik pretty quickly. I was taking casual jobs in east-coast stations, and I probably could have worked that way forever if I didn't want a permanent job.
It looked like I'd get work in Iqaluit at first, but I ended up moving to the west. Although I would have loved to get some experience in the Eastern Arctic, the NWT's pretty cool, too.
Loved your comment on Megan's blog. It should get a Nunie for Comment of the Year. Darn AB bloggers. We're everywhere! :)
What a great adventure. I think that is really brave of you to head so far up north. Our country is indeed beautiful, and kudos to you for getting to explore a part so many of us will miss!
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