Quote:
Originally Posted by FrAnKs
Compared to me :
Laval
St-Eustache
Québec city
Shameful  |
It's not all it's cracked up to be. It worked out well for my career, it was something I was compelled to do by circumstances beyond my control... and I don't regret it. But I do... feel a sense of loss when I think about all the years I didn't get to share with my city.
Ironically, CBC saved me. :-) I listened to a CBC Radio program about homesickness, and the host mentioned that Newfoundlanders are especially prone to it. They interviewed a bunch of people, and one of them was Allan Hawco (the lead actor on Republic of Doyle).
The host asked him what his rock bottom moment was, and he broke down a little sharing the story. He said he'd been living away for a long time, working odd jobs in construction and so on. He was on the subway in Toronto, heading to the eastern edge of the city for some job he didn't want to do, and:
"I was sitting there, my head in my hands, thinking, "What am I doing?" You know? And I looked up and, honest to God... I looked up at the subway door and etched into it was an outline map of Newfoundland... and written inside the little map of Newfoundland was... (voice cracking) "I want to go home". And... I remember... thinking... yep... (voice cracking, whispering), I know how you feel, buddy. I know how you feel. Two weeks later, when I was on that airplane, and I hit the lights of St. John's coming in over the harbour, I certainly welled up. Me
and the buddy sitting next to me, who I didn't even know. You know the saying: you'll always know the Newfoundlanders in Heaven. They're the only ones there who want to go home. It's true. Whenever we get together, it's all we ever talk about. We have this connection to the place. We've been separate from the rest of the world for so long and, like any island culture, our identity was preserved. And I think that identity, when you leave this place, it stays with you and you... you just pine for it because you find yourself surrounded by strangers with new identities - or the lack of an identity - and it's something you want to return to. At least I did. I really did."
I asked permission to work from a home-based office in St. John's, my employer granted the request (sssooo grateful. I work for the best people in the world), and voila. Home over a year, still going out every day taking pictures, still not sick of it.
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