Roll with the Punches

One of the biggest tips I can give anyone who comes to the North is that you need to learn to roll with the punches. I wish someone had sat me down and really made me understand that things may not always go as planned (not that they always do when you're in the South either), and it's ok if they don't. There are so many factors that you can't control up here, and it's just something you have to learn to deal with.

Before we moved to Nunavut, I'd say I was/am a Type A personality who always liked to have a schedule that was followed and spontaneity really wasn't my forte. Since moving here, I've had to do a significant readjustment to my level of expectations and need for order/control. It's been an interesting exercise, for sure - as my husband, the easy-going one of us, can attest to.

Things move at a different pace here than in Toronto. The notion of "time" works a bit differently here too and not everything happens when it's supposed to. Schedules aren't necessarily followed all the time. Weather, as can be expected, plays an important role in a lot of things so you need to learn to readjust/rearrange things based on what's going on outside. It's a unique experience that isn't at all what I'm used to. When we first got here, it made me really flustered because it's not how I work - if something was supposed to happen every Tuesday, then I didn't understand why it didn't happen every Tuesday.

The upside to all this is that I'm learning to be more at ease when things don't happen the way I thought they would. It's teaching me that the world won't end if something is 5 minutes (or 5 hours) late. It's also  resulted in some pretty good times when curveballs are thrown - for example, flights were cancelled yesterday for friends, which meant they had an extra night in town, so we had had them over for an impromptu dinner party. An unexpected way to spend our Tuesday night, but it was a pleasant surprise because we had a really nice evening instead of sitting around watching TV.

Over time, you just learn to let things go. So what if that thing that was supposed to happen on Tuesday doesn't happen on Tuesday? It'll probably happen on Wednesday. You thought you were leaving 3 hours from now and you're told you have to leave in 45 minutes? Ok, so you leave in 45 minutes. Or tomorrow. Either way, you'll get to go, so yay!

Whatever it is, roll with it. Life goes on whether you're ready or not, so why get angry? Breathe through it.

Stuff happens.
Things change.
Oh well. It'll be ok.
You'll make it through, and you'll probably have some great stories about it after.

Silver linings to everything.

-L