ENG 265: Final Entry. The end of an era. Or a couple of eras. . .

This is my last entry for the Creative Writing course, ENG 265.  It has been a great discipline to know that I need to write entries in order to pass this course, (and hopefully to write good entries at that!)  Here are a few things I’ve learned from this new habit.

1.  I’ve learned to be more observant of the events around me, or events that I am involved in.  I have been thinking more about how these events could translate into anecdotes or fun thoughts to share.

2.  Experimenting with style, word combinations and the like has also been a really fun, creative experience.  Practicing with blog entries has made writing papers a smoother experience.

3.  Because of this need to write blog entries, I have been hyper aware of other’s writing styles, be it in magazines, on websites or in books.

4.  I have been discovering other anecdotal authors such as Anne Lamott and Donald Miller.  They are my aspirations.

5.  I’ve been really enjoying reading much more lately.

I probably could go on, although I shouldn’t.  After a while I might just be making up things to fill space.

The title of this blog entry is The End of an Era.  Or a couple of eras. . . And the reason for that is the season of change that Bas and I find ourselves in.  We are both foreigners in this city, like many of Vancouver’s inhabitants.  And like many of these inhabitants, we are also transient people.  Knowing that we wouldn’t be here forever, we had planned on moving back to Europe at some point, finding ourselves jobs, settling down and having a family.  Little did we know that this transition would be coming around so soon.  At the beginning of the year, we talked seriously about the possibility of moving and started coming up with ideas of what we could do, where we would live and how we would go about this process.  To cut a long story short, doors opened up easier than we thought.  Bas was offered a job in the Netherlands as of the beginning of July 2012 in a town called Zwolle, and so we are moving back to Holland.

Just writing that sentence alone brings up a lot of emotions.  Moving to Canada was one of the most major turning points in my life so far, and it will be a real wrench for me to leave this city that I have made my home in.  The city itself is appealing, enjoyable and offers a lot of different amenities, but that is all easy to leave.  I can find those things, or joy in new things, in our new home town of Zwolle next year.  The hardest thing for us both to leave is our new found family.  We have family in England and Holland, family that we were born into.  But while we were away from that family, others stood around us, loved us and encouraged us as we learned new things, experienced new events and took challenges on.

I’ve been here just over seven years.  A quarter of my life here and I think I can safely say that I have some definite Canadian traits about me. . . (well, maybe more Vancouverite traits)  I have found my identity here, grounded my relationship with God here and established morals, beliefs and traditions with myself and my husband.  It has been a cocoon for growth and maturity, and now I have to step out of that warm incubation and move on.  Thankfully Holland doesn’t get much colder than Vancouver, so it won’t be a cold experience!

So thus endeth two eras.  This writing course, and my time in Vancity.  I guess I can’t really write much more about it because there are so many things to think about.  It is for sure an emotional experience that will take a long time to walk through, and I am sure, get used to when we transition over to the Netherlands.

Until next time, because there will be a next set of blog entries, despite not needing to write in order to pass courses. . .

Advertisement