Tuesday 30 September 2014

My New Small-Town Life

For 3o of the past 40 years of my life, I lived in what I deemed to be a medium-sized city.  Burlington, Ontario - current population 285, 000.  We had everything we needed right there - a great hospital, waterfront trails and beaches, annual music festivals, Canada's Largest RibFest!  Did I mention RibFest? ;)  And because I had lived there for 30 years Burlington grew along with me, so it never felt big to me.  I could get around it with my eyes closed, knew where obscure little side streets were when people mentioned them, and could do that whole "jeez remember when the Go Station was a corn field?" thing, that proves you have grown right along with your city.

And then, 4 months ago, we made the decision to uproot ourselves from that safety zone (my 12 year old son has never lived anywhere else) and move to Grimsby - population 25, 200. Blending households with a significant other in your 40s inevitably means one party makes the sacrifice of moving to the other party's comfort zone.  We were willing to make that sacrifice.