New province, different world

Being the new guy in town is always an experience, but it’s nothing I am not used to.

I moved to St. Paul last week from Waterloo, Ont., a region of 553,000. Relocating to a town with roughly one per cent of Waterloo’s population has admittedly been a big change, but the small town life has been very welcoming thus far.

Having lived in Germany, British Columbia, California, Ontario and now the beautiful province of Alberta, I am no stranger to the moniker of “the new guy”. In fact, my nomadic history is something I have come to embrace.

When I tell people I am from The Journal, the most common response is: “Oh! You’re the new sports guy?”

It seems people have been expecting my arrival, and everyone I’ve met has been happy to welcome me with a smile. I’m pleased to say that I am the new sports guy with the St. Paul Journal, and I’m proud to be here doing what I love.

My life has always revolved around my two passions, writing and sports, and when I entered my post-graduate at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ont. with the goal of becoming a successful sports journalist, I knew that I would go wherever it would take me.

Over the past year I have covered events as big as the Manulife LPGA Classic in Waterloo, and have interviewed people as notable as Gordie “Mr. Hockey” Howe. Sports writing has never felt like work to me, which is why is was an easy decision to pack my bags and head out west when the St. Paul Journal came knocking in July.

It is always exciting to see the differences between places, especially within Canada. Even though it’s only a few provinces over from Ontario, and next door to where I grew up in B.C., northern Alberta is very different from anywhere I’ve lived.

The landscape is like nothing I’ve ever seen, and driving through it has been unforgettable. I’ve been through areas with never-ending farmland, I’ve seen the Rocky Mountains, and I’ve sailed through the Great Lakes, but I have never been driving through wheat and barley fields only to take a left turn and find myself passing by a series of lakes as smooth as glass that reflect the near-endless sky like a water painting.

Some of the roads around here seem to climb straight up into the sky, as though they will drop like a roller coaster into blue nothingness from the pinnacle. Instead, at the peaks of these roads, I find awe-inspiring views of the rolling northern Alberta countryside that stretch beyond the confines of my windshield.

It’s been a great experience so far, and I look forward to continuing my exploration of the Lakeland area in my free time, and learning more about what it is to be an Albertan. While it may be smaller than anywhere I’ve resided, this is truly a beautiful place we live in, and I hope I never take that for granted.