2024 Wrapped — A year of doing things I love.

I can’t believe it is the fourth year of me doing these recaps, barring the year 2021. That was the beginning of my first year in Canada. I cannot for the life of me remember what happened that stopped me from writing one but I’m guessing it might have a little something to do with the first and nastiest frostbite I ever experienced in my life.

Nevertheless, these little recaps are great because they cause me to reflect on the past year and how far I have come. I hit the 3 year mark as a resident in Canada in November and it has been so good so far.

This year’s recap is going to take a different form though because there weren’t a lot of ‘hit’ moments but it was great all the same. My mantra was “Let us do what we love and keep doing a lot of it”.

Things discovered I love: touring, hanging out with friends, creating content in IG (even though I relatively suck at it), service and being with my fellow brothers and sisters. I did absolutely everything and more.

I did not explore a lot locally which still haunts me cause I had my Canoo membership that allowed me entry into a lot of places for free. However, I did go out of town twice.

I went to Niagara on the Lake in spring; it was such a pleasant little place. I stayed at this quaint little hotel / bed-and-breakfast called WeatherPine Inn. The host was so sweet; he had recommendations for where to get baked goods, places to eat and get grocery store items, stuff to check out, how to get around and even offered to lend me a bike. Apparently, the hotel rents out bikes to guests. I cannot ride a bike though so I pretty much went everywhere on foot and it was not bad. It was a slower pace from what I am used to in Toronto but I loved it.

I also visited Montreal for the first time and it was amazing. I toured the Museum of Archeology and History amongst other museums and saw the archeological sites. It was such a wonderful experience.

I had some concern about being practically illiterate in French but I got by pretty well. I did not get lost which is such a big deal for me because I am directionally challenged and can barely read Google maps. Now pair that with trying to read signs in another language. It was such a feat for me and I am so proud of myself.

The locals weren’t hostile as I was made to believe. I think you just have to show some interest in trying to communicate with them in their language and I can understand that. Saying ‘Bonjour’, ‘Merci’, ‘S’il vous plait’, ‘Perdon’, and ‘Je ne parle pas bien français’ seemed to placate a lot of the people I came across and they switched to English when speaking to me.

Overall, it was a great experience and I’ll definitely be going back.

I met up with friends a lot, even hosted a few gatherings of my own. I remember talking to someone — a former friend — about a group of people that I hung out occasionally with and how I wanted that to happen more often and to ‘belong’. Well, it turned out I just needed to get rid of the old to make room for the new.

I started a new IG account — somewhere I could talk directly to the camera without worrying about how cringe I might look to friends and family. Also did a lot of service. I was out consistently on both days of the weekend especially during the summer. It was something I wanted to work on and I am glad I got that to happen. I also went to the meetings with a few exceptions here and there. I always feel better after the meetings so that was not so hard to do.

My mom visited me for a bit and I have my younger brother here with me now. It was a tough ride but we’re getting it to work.

It is easy to take little ‘wins’ like this for granted because others are doing the big moves but one of the greatest things I learned this year was to be grateful.

Grateful for life, friends, relative good health, the ability to take care of my needs and the support of family.

It’s been a long one but I think I am going to end it here. Let’s all discover the things we love, continue to do them and do a lot of it.

Till next time. 😃😃