Life and other things
On an unseasonably cold evening in late November, a jet touched down at Vancouver International Airport while a little thing known as Real Life lurched back into motion. The jet contained a very tired girl with a large suitcase in tow; Real Life was made up of the usual, the mundane, and the everyday. And over the next few weeks, through typical days at the office and grey, rainy afternoons, through the slow pace of life on the West Coast and the way everything felt so completely unchanged, Real Life quickly faded nearly two months of culture and adventure into a hazy, surreal memory.
Now fast-forward to mid-December. They say reverse culture shock doesn’t last long, especially when you hadn’t even been away from home for more than a handful of weeks, but they clearly underestimated the lingering effects that a European city can have on an already restless girl. Weeks later, I can’t help but notice the overwhelming openness of everything here – the way this city seems so new and empty, covered with expansive parking lots and low-rise office buildings illustrating the worst of 1970s architecture, or the way a downtown street can feel so deserted even at the height of a Saturday afternoon in prime holiday shopping season – and I can’t stop myself from lamenting the casual, almost careless style of most people here. Even the ocean, while still undeniably beautiful, seems to whisper “but I’m not the Mediterranean” every time I look at it. My return to Victoria seemed to emphasize how much I’ve changed – while everything around me hasn’t.
Thankfully, it’s almost a new year. This feels like a logical place to package up 2010 – which, all things considered, was an excellent year, but like most good things does eventually need to come to an end – and put it back on the shelf while starting off 2011 with a clean slate and a new sense of direction. I’m not really the type to make New Year’s resolutions, but it can’t hurt to set a few relatively vague goals: In 2011, I will continue to be obsessed with all things design-related. I will see more of the world, improve my French, become a better photographer, and keep pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. I will move away from Victoria, wherever that might take me, and I will make sure that Real Life is always challenging, interesting, and exciting.
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