A new chapter

I'd be lying if I said I knew 100% that I was going to stay here for good once the month was up. I'd also be lying if I said I didn't know if the big city was going to be for me once I finally left the small town that I was trapped in for so many years. 
​I was completely oblivious to what my life was about to become.

small town girl moves to a bigger small town

I grew up in Mission, British Columbia, a small town located between Maple Ridge and Abbotsford. I lived in a little cul de sac that backed onto a lush ravine that I spent all of my childhood days in, getting dirty, making new scars and of course, breaking bones from getting too wild in the trees. We had a great home and amazing neighbours and countless memories shared blasting Spice Girls on my parent's stereo system from the 80s. You know... The ones that were the size of small humans made of wood? Those ones.
When I was 11, my parents decided to pack up the memories made in my childhood home and start a new life in the Okanagan. It was a bigger city than I was used to, but unlike Mission, Kelowna does not have many surrounding cities to give it the 'big city' vibe - rather, Kelowna is its own little island in the middle of BC's desert. 
I spent most of my life in Kelowna, learning my hardest lessons that helped me become the person that I am today. I overcame hardships such as braces (seriously so devastating, who wants to kiss a girl with braces? Oh that's right, NO ONE), the loss of friendships, drug addiction and failure. Each lesson brought me motivation to do better, as with anything in life. 
The last few years of my life have been consumed by my love for fitness and health. As I have spoken about in the past, I grew up dancing. That was my only sport... I didn't do anything else. Competitive Irish dancing in particular is what developed my eagerness to win at everything I put my mind to, and even if I did fail, I knew what I was going to do differently when I did it again. 
I'm not stubborn at all.
When I retired from dance, I found love for things like dumbbells, peanut butter and L-Carnitine (L-what-a-teen? Keep your shirt on there friendship, it's the make-me-better supplement). It wasn't until I did my first fitness competition that I really got addicted, with a few love/hate obstacles in between.
Back to the story... This past October, another partner and myself were presented the opportunity to do a store opening for work down in Vancouver. For the past year or so, I have been in this weird flip-flop stage of my life where this burning desire to move away from Kelowna was on the back burner in my mind. I knew I was going to leave at some point, given that I did not have anything in that city to tie me down. I just didn't know if or when it was going to happen.

Bigger small town girl moves to the big city

Not thinking twice, I dropped my life in Kelowna, packed 2 bags of clothes and drove down to the coast not knowing a single thing about the big city other than what street I was working on. My scheduled time down here was only supposed to be one month, which is all that I had planned for. After one week of living here, I knew I didn't want to go back to Kelowna, in fact, the thought of it gave me so much anxiety that I couldn't sleep at night.
What am I supposed to do... I thought to myself. I was so torn. I was ready to go back to Kelowna and do what I had to do before I eventually made the move down here, but I didn't have a clue whether or not that was going to be a reality. There was a lot more risk leaving my life down here for what I had already back at home. Everything was better. I fell in LOVE with my life. It wasn't just my job, it wasn't just the big city. There are so many reasons why my life became better just by moving away from Kelowna. I got clarity in my personal life, my lifestyle became healthier, I get to see my family more than twice a year, and there are so many people who have come into my life who have captured my heart and making me realize that yes, it is completely possible to start a life in a new city. 
It's the most selfish thing I've ever done, some may even consider it flighty.  At the end of the day however, my sanity was more important than the foundation I was trying to keep alive back in Kelowna. So was I really being flighty, or was I finally checking out my wing span?
So here we are, officially one month spent down in this city but as far as I'm concerned, this is just chapter one of this amazing new adventure. Time for the Kelowna girl to convert to a Vancouverite. I'm home.

​<3 ​