Home is where the heart is

& I’ve left a piece of it back in San Francisco… though I sure am happy to be back in Vancouver.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I was sure impressed and amazed at how suited I was for the city, or how suited the city was for me. I can’t wait to one day go back and live there.

I’m not going to lie, a lot of my prejudice for the United States has lifted. I suppose years of schooling has made me become pretentious in a way, for all the times Canada has looked better than the US in so many situations and continues to apparently rise above. It just made me realize that the decisions made by the government or the majority of a country are not in itself the decisions of every individual residing there, and so it is completely unfair to be so surprised to learn that the person sitting behind me on the street car could very well be from my country of origin. (Duh, no brainer right?) A place does not determine a person, though a person can determine a place.

I am forever grateful that I didn’t spend my week there seeing the city through the eyes of a tourist, even though I have only barely skimmed the surface. It’s made me realize that I still don’t know the city I live in well enough either, but I am now determined to change that.

Every time I travel, my eyes open up wider than before. Every time I travel, the world seems so gigantic and I feel so incredibly small. Every time I travel, it’s hard to figure out where I fall in the grand scheme of things. But every time I travel, I learn even more about myself, of my hopes, my dreams, and my desires.

Seven days, and I have learned so much.