BARRY’S BAY – When people ask me, “What made you move from Vancouver to Palmer Rapids?” My stock answer is, “The price of real estate in Vancouver.” While this response satisfies most, a few people have difficulty believing that a tiny hamlet in rural Ontario could entice someone to give up life in a thriving West Coast city; but it did and I am here.
In the summer of 2016, I purchased a one-way plane ticket from Vancouver to Toronto, and a Greyhound bus ticket on to Combermere. I had no job, no car, no house, and no doubt that a life in rural Ontario could be made into something quite wonderful. I came with two suitcases and a vision for what I wanted in life, but not much of a plan for how to get there.
A plan of sorts eventually did unfold; it was scribbled down, tested and reworked out of necessity several times over the past two and half years. Through all of those changes, and with much help from friends and family, the reality of my life has come to be very much as I had hoped it would be when I purchased that one-way ticket. Sometimes it astonishes me how clearly the vision has emerged.
Having a job that includes writing was central to my vision for the life I wanted here in the Madawaska Valley. Writing has been a passion of mine since Grade 4. That I am able to work also in advertising is a bonus; the subject of advertising has captivated me since my early years.
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