I’m in a New World

I moved to Yellowknife in 2018. But I feel I’ve just moved. The winter and the frozen lake welcome me to a new reality. This is my first winter following a big decision in my life.

Three years ago, I travelled across oceans for my destination wedding. I vividly remember each detail as if they’re all engraved somewhere on my mind. There is no way for me to bypass this memory, at least for now. Around this time of the year, I left Yellowknife for my wedding and honeymoon escaping the darkest and coldest days of the North. I thought I was lucky, embarking on an exceptional journey, not knowing how events would unfold. I was married on the shortest day of the year, winter solstice.

My short marriage hardly lasted three years. This story is not about my short marriage, conflicts, or separation, but it’s about my new world— having to rebuild and realign my ships following the storm.

I moved to the North before getting married in 2018. For a year, I lived by myself in this friendly northern town. My life changed when I got married. He moved to Yellowknife. The long summer days and cold winter nights melted into each other until I made the most important decision in my life: to end my marriage.

Here is the classic cliché response: travel. Many in my situation would do this. It works for a while because it’s a temporary escape from the reality, but it’s real. I felt the need for a well deserved vacation that would cleanse my mind and help me transition to my new world.

Now I’m in a new world. Yellowknife, that I called home, felt like a new place. I needed a break away from home… or my new home. I recently came back from my magical vacation in Europe followed by a work trip to Iqaluit. Coincidentally, I arrived to Yellowknife around the same time I left to get married in 2018.

Yellowknife welcomes me back following my first overseas trip since my wedding! I needed a vacation in another world to return my new world: the spectacular North.

Here is to my new world and to northern winter!