Leaving Home/New Beginnings

It's official. We're off to waterless Waterloo.

In an epic move that will tear us away from our saline home, we are moving to the centre of Canada. There, in this university town, I will be an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo's new School of Pharmacy. I'm tasked with the job of shaping, engaging and blowing young minds and am already knee deep in plans to help change a profession in crisis (the plight of the pharmacist is another post for another time).

Meanwhile, The (traumatized) Husband is embracing the various educational opportunities offered by the city and is planning to hit the books. It turns out that he too wishes to shape, engage and blow young minds through teaching - though he's aiming for a younger generation.

And Princess Pea? What will come of our water baby in a land where seagulls are smaller, not bigger, than she is? Where dirt piles take the place of seashelled sand castles? Well, we expect her to adjust quite well to the abundance of family and yard space that awaits her in our new city. For the one thing that Vancouver lacks is the one thing Waterloo offers - affordable land.

As we prepare to move our one bedroom apartment with ocean views to a temporary sabbatical home in downtown Kitchener, we are nostalgic over everything Vancouver. Favourite coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques and watery walks. We are already missing it all.

But in the end, life goes on and so too must we. It's time to grow up. Get real jobs. Get a mortgage. Get a life. But the one thing we will never get is freshwater blood. Vancouver will always be one of our homes.

Our family photo by the fantastic Jeremy Lim.