Oh Canada!

I hold my hands up! I've been neglecting my blogging duties of late. Like many of us, I got caught up in a spiral of festive buying, eating and visiting. Christmas and New Year came and went and before I knew it I was into February, with nothing to show for all my well wrapped presents and carefully planned outfits but a bit of festive weight gain!

 I started to write many a time, honest, but the truth is I just didn't know what I wanted to say.

I started a blog so that I would have something to create, a project to nurture. The trouble is that until recently, I didn't really know what I wanted it to become.

Those that know me will know that travelling is a pretty big part of who I am. The importance of understanding and appreciating different cultures was instilled in me by my parents and is something that has always stayed with me. To me, the value of travel is not about ranking destinations in the order you like best, but in understanding the ideas and community that creates both the good and bad in your guide book.

I was lucky enough to recently visit British Columbia in Canada whilst on a trip to Whistler. Now I know what you're thinking, ski holidays aren't known for their diverse culture and eye opening experiences, but this holiday re-acquainted me with ambitions I held as a youngster, and forced me to ask myself why I had let the aspirations of a 14 year old Aimée fade into the shadows?

10 years ago I spent a summer travelling north along the west coast of North America with my parents and younger brother. We started in Las Vegas and continued through the Utah desert to the Grand Canyon before winding our way through the Rockies and up through British Columbia, culminating at the top of Whistler mountain. As a know-it-all teen I took it all in my stride, Vegas one day, Vancouver Island the next, whatever... but something about that trip inspired us all. Upon our return my parents hastily looked into a move to Canada. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, it was not a feasible decision and their ambitions, as well as my own, were shelved.

Over the next 10 years we would share our pipe dreams of spending our summers sailing and mountain biking and winters snowboarding amongst the picturesque backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, with Downtown Vancouver being the destination of choice. Discussions, often prompted by newspaper cuttings and text book photocopies my grandad would send in the post detailing the booming Canadian economy, low greenhouse effect and Vancouver's 4th place in worldwide quality of life polls (with handwritten comments such as "You have to go now, they will close the doors!"  scrawled along the edges) would ignite the light behind my eyes and my mind would wander. But its not that easy, is it?

As the coach steadily made its way down the boisterous Sea to Sky Highway, which as the name suggests, stretches from the coast all the way up to the mountain resorts, I felt myself well up. It had taken me 10 years to return,  and I damn well wasn't ready to leave. Every street we turned into took us one step closer to the familiarity of home, yet I felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under me and each lurch of the coach was taking another opportunity away - an opportunity that I was yet to explore and had my name written all over it. By the time we arrived at check in I was more than emotional.

I decided there and then that I was not not going to let any more ambitions get the better of me, and so I sat in the departure lounge using the free wi-fi to look into visa's and flight information. This was all a bit of a shock for my boyfriend to say the least, but he has, at least so far, been more understanding than I could have hoped for. I'm lucky that he shares my sense of adventure and knows me well enough to know when I'm serious about something and when I'm not.

I've been back less than a week, but I have already made visa enquiries and have found that I can, in the first instance apply for a years working visa, which can then be extended for a second year if I am accepted. I'm not thinking that far ahead. I will go with one year in mind and see where life takes me. I'm lucky enough that Vancouver offers a metropolitan city which means I will have a greater chance of furthering my career than if I stayed in England, and I am hoping this will satisfy the other ambition in me - to be a success.


So there we have it - I finally have a reason to blog. My blog is about achieving my ambitions, how and why. I would like to think that I will make a concerted effort not to let dreams slip away. You cant do everything in life, but I'll give it a go....

Here is a little of what inspires me:

  

Whats your ambition?

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour