Five Years in London

Hard to believe that I've been here for five years. Yes, time has flown by, but in another way it feels like a lifetime since I've left Canada behind. I landed in London with no job, knowing no-one.

Five years and three jobs later (what can I say, I get bored easily), I feel like this city is my home. I'm doing what I love (writing -- the only thing which doesn't bore me!) and living with a man I love. It's a good life.

I didn't know what to expect when I first came here. I didn't have any expectations, really, other than I just wasn't ready to settle in Canada. I'd gone back to the homeland ready to find a job and get back to reality after a few blissful years in Europe. A year and another university degree later, I knew I couldn't stay. So I set my sights in England, where I get a working holiday visa and find a teaching job.

I met The Man the week after I landed, got a job a month later, and life just sorted itself out. Yes, there have been bumps along the way but I have never regretted my decision to come to England. It's been good to me, and London is the icing on the cake. There's so much to do in this great city -- much of it for free. It's the longest I've lived in one place since I left the city in which I was born, and quite honestly I can see myself here forever.

Five years ago, I arrived not knowing the future. I still don't know what's in store, but I know it's in London.