Ironic Beginnings

This blog will most likely be about many things, but its main purpose is to give me a place to explore and celebrate the things that I love and appreciate about my home province. The ironic thing about it is that I am currently living in Timberlea, Nova Scotia, although this situation is short term: I will be returning to Newfoundland in about two months, and this time I feel like it's permanent.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with my home province. I am so proud to be a Newfoundlander, and would defend and/or recommend my province to anyone. Yet, I could never wait to get out of there. My whole childhood I knew I wanted to leave and go live somewhere else, though I always thought I would come back to retire. In 2004 I did just that. After hitting the proverbial rock bottom, I decided that it was time for a big change, and I picked up and moved to Halifax. Not a big move, I grant you (when my Uncle Sid said "Why don't you go west?" I countered with "Halifax is west") but I was not disillusioned with the City of St. John's, just my life in it. I wanted a similar city, and I found that in Halifax. It's much like St. John's, only that little bit bigger and, most importantly for my needs at that time, filled to the brim with people I didn't know. I had a great time in the three years that I spent in The Fax: made lots of great friends, found a job that I loved, and, above all those things, found myself. I know that sounds impossibly hokey, but I really did: I figured out what I wanted to do in school, and started acting in the way that I thought best, and not in the way that I thought people expected me to act.
When I moved home in 2007 I did so with great trepidation...or, to put it more accurately, I was scared shitless. I had been so miserable before my move to Halifax and I was certain I would slip back into that life again. And, to some extent, I did. Don't get me wrong, I made a lot of great friends in St. John's, to add to the select group of lifelong friends that I have kept with me, and I found another great job, and really enjoyed my program at school. And yet, every time something was less than perfect, I once again blamed it on my surroundings: St. John's sucked, and I could not wait to get back to Halifax. To attempt to shorten an already lengthy story, I changed my mind about moving back to Halifax back in May, and decided to give St. John's an honest shot, to actually put some work into improving my life, and to not just complain and place blame every time life was less than perfect. Things do not always go according to plan, however (colour me surprised) and at the request of a friend in a tight spot, I moved back to Halifax for the Fall.
Almost immediately, I see my life in St. John's in a different light. It's amazing how a little distance can put a situation into perspective. I see now that a lot of the troubles I had in my past three years there were either within my power to fix, or not even really troubles at all. I have a wonderful group of friends, a job that, while not my lifelong career plan, satisfies me, and I looooove my city and my province. I don't want to live anywhere else.
So, for the next two months, this blog may either remain dormant, or, more likely, become an outlet for those things and people that I miss most about home. After that, I will use this blog to remind myself to celebrate the place where I live, and to find the good in being at home. Things will not always be great, but there will always be great things, and that should be my focus.