I'm Coming Home
User Story
By Heather Riddell
My family and I have been very lucky in the amount of world we have been able to travel to and through. As a child my grandmère traveled extensively and we saw many places vicariously through her slides, souvenirs and anecdotes. My family also lived in a variety of places because of my father’s work. As a graduating high school student unsure of a career direction, I applied to Canada World Youth and was accepted for an overseas work exchange in Sri Lanka thus starting my own traveling journeys.
After returning to Canada, I started my university program and despite an at times skimpy budget, I worked as many hours as I could handle in my last term in order to still pay bills and expenses as well as to save for a second trip to Asia!
I left in January, and truth be told, was not sad to wave goodbye from the plane to all the frost and snow below. After traveling through Hong Kong, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, I was feeling rich and full with history, vistas, culture, tradition and food. At times, I was lonely for the people, food, customs and familiarity of Edmonton, but truly felt at peace and at home in the myriad of new places.
A scant 4 months later, I was saying goodbye to Hong Kong and settling in to the flight. The long flight. The flight that left plenty of time for retrospection. Plenty of time for feelings of homesickness to well up. I knew that I would miss all the places I had been. How could I be returning to Canada and its blandness after being through such a colourful journey?
What I didn’t know was that Edmonton is a place that can generate the very same feelings I had while traveling. I arrived in Edmonton in mid-May. A time when the river valley is shrouded in a mist of newly-sprung verdant leaves. A time when people are out everywhere enjoying the city’s sights while walking or cycling. A time when restaurants are opening their sidewalk cafés. A time when sports fields are open and full of soccer, baseball and even an occasional cricket game. The day of my return was the day I realized that Edmonton truly is a home of variety and wonder equal to much of the rest of the world!
