I’m Never Leaving

It has come to the point where Toronto no longer feels like a temporary destination, but it feels like home. I know the streets, I know its secrets, I’m no longer just an Australian visiting Toronto for a few months, I 100% feel like a Canadian-Australian hybrid. The downside is, this wonderful new home will no longer be home in another month, and that for me is far too soon.

As much as I want to return to Melbourne, I’m not ready to have to assimilate back into my old life. So much has changed in the last three months, but mostly moving here has given me the fresh start I’ve been craving all year.

I know travelling the world cannot last forever, but there’s something different getting to travel as a student, and not as some poor tourist, but travel to live and learn a new culture. I’ve struggled with an overload of assignments these last 12 weeks, but it’s taught me that education can be replicated around the world and experiencing this on my own in a local Canadian University is a childhood dream come true.

But just as I’m beginning to realise my time is quickly running out, I’m scrabbling around looking for the pause button as my dearest fellow blogger pal puts it.

I leave Toronto in 10 days, I fly home in 5 weeks. Where have the last few months gone? It’s so funny to think that I was dreading getting onto that plane, scared of the unknown, fearing being homesick and isolated in a world of maple syrup and beavers. I have no words for how happy I am with life that I embraced every part of this Canadian adventure, and I only plan on returning in the near future.

Toronto is home.

I am 100% terrified to return home after living alone, in a completely new place, where the fresh start was greatly needed. It’s easy to say after a year of travel my perspective of life has changed, as lame as that is. But honestly it’s true. I see the world so differently and I only want to explore it more, indulge in new cultures and call new places home.

Everyone who says going on exchange is the best thing they have ever done, I whole-heartedly agree. It’s impossible to describe the type of friendships you make, the places you fall in love with and the way you see the world as you settle into a new home.

I miss home, trust me. I miss my friends, family, pet and just a routine, but I just need a little longer, please? I just need a little more time with my new life here, because this has easily been one of the greatest adventures of my entire life. Says the baby 21 year old…

If I have one piece of advice, it would be to see the world and don’t let your fears of the unknown keep you trapped. Embrace your fear, embrace a new world, embrace everything you can because before you know it you’ll be old and grey, sitting on a rocking chair, thinking back about everything you could  have done, but never did. Do not become that person, promise me that.