[I'm currently away in Toronto on business until the middle of next week. Please don't rob my house. In the meantime, here's a lovely East Coast guest post by a local blogger and fellow CBC-er.]
By Shaina Luck
“Don’t you think there would be more opportunities in a big city?”
I get that question way too much, and I’m really tired of it. I always answer the same way.
“Sure, maybe there would be,” I reply. Then I explain that in spite of the opportunities a big city offers (and I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that a big city would REALLY offer my dream job in journalism) I’ve got a network in Halifax. I feel like people here have time to listen to me.
I guess you could say that the real answer to that over-asked question is, “Hell NO!”
I moved from Toronto to Halifax in 2003 to pursue a degree in journalism at the University of King’s College. I thought I’d be going home at the end of four years. Right up through the final months of my degree my mom was thinking about an East Coast road trip and planning how we could pack my things into the car for the return journey.
At the time this made me happy, because I didn’t like Halifax.
I come from Toronto, Toronto. I’m a real downtown girl. I love the feel of a big city. Halifax was cute but it was a pain in my butt. I couldn’t get decent Chinese food. The nightlife mostly consisted of beer. The transit system made me angrier than a wasp in a jar. I felt like a tourist on an extended, mediocre vacation.
When I decided to stay, I knew that I had to change my approach. No more tourism. If this was going to be home, I had to make it into a home.
I started to look for ways to become part of the community. I began to take dance classes. I volunteered at the library. I organized outings with acquaintances so that we could become friends. I paid attention to notices on message boards. I went to community meetings. I struck up conversations with my neighbours.
At first I found that I had to force the process, but the more I worked at it the more I found a sense of belonging in this rocky, foreign place. And the more I felt like I belonged, the more I realized that I actually liked Halifax. I liked Halifax a lot.
Another thing that happened along with this sense of belonging and liking for Halifax, was that Halifax started to like me. Opportunities opened. Work started to arrive.
All these things happened gradually over time. Things evolved, one into another. It was my own fault that I distanced myself from Halifax, but it was also my micro-decisions which changed that. I didn’t understand my community until I became part of it. When I decided to become interested in my neighbours, acquaintances, and community, rather than live with my mind constantly flitting away to the “big city opportunities,” I started to see the opportunities right in front of me.
Funny how that works!
Shaina Luck is a 20-something freelance reporter based in Spryfield. She works most often with CBC Radio’s Information Morning program. She covers local news for her community newsblog which is linked to Haligonia.ca. She does some writing for magazines and websites and corporate/advertising writing as well.
Kimberly Walsh is a social media and online community manager. You can follow her on Twitter @AliasGrace.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We moved to Halifax from Vancouver, and were there for about two and a half years before finally fleeing as fast as we could to Toronto. We tried the getting out and meeting people thing, we took part in community events, etc. I did meet some amazing people; mostly from Bangladesh, Australia, Edmonton, PEI, and Newfoundland.
Locals over the age of 25 or so would either start speaking slower when we mentioned that we were From Away or would just walk away after we couldn’t answer their next question “Why did you come HERE?”
I had a number of experiences where I’d introduce myself and say something, only to have everyone freeze, as if they’d been caught in the headlights of a car in the middle of the road at night. I began to think I was socially awkward in some embarrassing way as it happened more and more frequently. They’d freeze while I spoke, then carry on as if nothing had happened. I’ve never seen this sort of behaviour anywhere I’ve been – before or since.
We lived in the same building for the entire time we were in Halifax, and people just didn’t talk to each other in the lobby, the elevator, etc. Even if you asked someone a question directly, you’d be as likely as anything to get the wide eyed stare until you just went away. We’ve been here in Toronto for 8 months and I’ve met and learned peoples’ names in my building’s elevator, and I’ve had conversations with people on transit, and on the street… as a long-time Vancouver resident, I’m really surprised at how friendly Toronto seems compared even to Vancouver.
I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with liking Halifax – I know some sane people who live and work there, both locals and otherwise. Maybe my experience would have been different if we lived up by the commons instead of by Dalhousie, maybe it would have been different 10 years earlier, etc…
I just couldn’t deal with a people who (as a whole) fancied themselves the most openhearted and open minded people in the whole wide world while being so openly divisive, racist and judgmental at the same time.
Even the two scales that people are weighed on; Local or CFA; where people From Away appear to be valued lower by default. I remember when I was at the library on Spring Garden signing up for my card. I heard a woman at the reference desk introduce her new co-worker who had moved to Halifax to a library patron; “This is X, our new Z. She’s From Away, but we’ll keep her anyway!” and then they laughed. Well, two of them laughed, at least.
My anecdotes aren’t all horrible, but they’re the ones that spring easiest to mind.
It does take more work to find a place for oneself in Halifax than in Toronto*. That’s certain. I grew up in Toronto, so I’ll grant it has an unfair advantage, being my hometown, but people are friendlier there than here, it is easier to build a network there, and, yes, there are more opportunities. The author seems to accept these points as well, yet chooses not to reveal why she chose to stay in Halifax, nor, oddly, given the title of the piece, why she likes it.
*Downtown Toronto. I have never lived in Toronto’s burbs, and can’t vouch for them.