This post has been a long time in the making. 9 years and 5 months exactly.
My title is a quote but I don’t know who said/wrote it. I came across it while trying to think of an apt beginning to a post that is going to shock and sadden many friends/family back home in Canada. I suppose I should stop beating around the bush and just put it out there.
I have decided to stay in Scotland. For the foreseeable future.
I’m not sure when I turned the corner. I spent so long pining over the idea of Canada, going home, better quality of life etc that…I scuppered myself the opportunity to be happy here. I kept friends at arms length because I didn’t see the point in forming attachments if we were just going back to Canada. I put off getting the wheels started in selling the flat because, I didn’t want to buy a house only to move back to Canada. I spent a lot of time saying things like “oh that would never happen in Canada, life is better over there”, that I blinded myself from seeing Scotland and the UK in the light it deserves. Both countries have pros and cons. I like that sales tax is included in prices here. I like that I don’t have to do a tax return in all its complexity. I like that prescription drugs are free, that there’s midwives, free admission to museums and galleries. And the cheese. Mull of kintyre! I like that the highlands are close, the borders closer. And I love Edinburgh. That gorgeous city in all its
history and cobblestones. The cons are…well, it’s expensive and taxes are extortionate. It rains a lot.
I did a lot of soul searching to work out what it was about Canada that I was desperate about. Sure I miss my friends and family, but that wasn’t it. I finally realised that it was the convenience. The huge oversized washing machines and dryers where loads of laundry are done in an hour and a half from wet to dry. The better shopping, restaurants, fast food.
There’s too much I want to do on this side of the world. Explore Europe. I want the boys to know this country and the continent. To appreciate history and ancient architecture. To have access to world renowned universities like St Andrews or Oxford if that’s where they decide they want to go. They are so lucky in that they have two countries to choose from, whatever they decide.
There are two places I have narrowed down to move to. West Linton or Peebles. I strongly suspect Peebles is going to win out just because it is more of a town than a village like West Linton is.
Victoria, British Columbia will always be my spiritual home, and you never know, we might retire out there one day. But for now, Scotland is finally home, and more importantly, I’m ready to put roots down here.
🙂
I end this with another excerpt, from Alexander McCall Smith
“Dear friends, he began, there is no timetable for happiness; it moves, I think, according to rules of its own. When I was a boy I thought I’d be happy tomorrow, as a young man I thought it would be next week; last month I thought it would be never. Today, I know it is now. Each of us, I suppose has at least one person who thinks that our manifest faults are worth ignoring; I have found mine, and am content. When we are far from home we think of home; I, who am happy today, think of those in Scotland for whom such happiness might seem elusive; may such powers as listen to what is said by people like me, in olive groves like this, grant to those who want a friendship a friend, attend to the needs of those who have little, hold the hand of those who are lonely, allow Scotland, our place, our country, to sing in the language of her choosing that song she has always wanted to sing, which is of brotherhood, which is of love.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Importance of Being Seven
The Geeky Canuck 