never forget where you came from.

my mom packed up her one bedroom apartment last week and made the trek to ottawa to live with my sister and brother in law. on one hand, i couldn't be more thrilled for her as i know that she's always wanted to move there and will be well taken care of, but on another, it made me feel kind of sad. sad that i no longer have a place to remember my dad [although i carry him everywhere i go], and sad that the place i grew up in suddenly seems oddly vacant.

alliston was more than a town to me; it was my safe place; a place where i landed my first job, started going to church, ended my six year high school stint with a valedictorian speech, played ball, cried a bit, and laughed a lot more.

but it was also a launch pad; a launch pad that saw me off to brampton, ontario when i was 21, and then from there, vancouver, edmonton, penticton, and ottawa before coming back to the GTA, all of which have moulded me into the person i am today.

as you know from reading my blogs, i've made some significant changes in my life as of late, and i've never felt so alive and tired all at the same time. with these changes comes the need to arrange [and rearrange] my priorities while trying to find balance between working, building my organization, and resting. i try and balance these three necessities every single day, all the while trying to make time for what's most important: my relationships.

today, i'm sitting in second cup with two of my friends who are in town until tomorrow. we hung out, had some lunch, caught up, and now all three of us are sitting at our respected computers and working on the stuff that keeps our hearts beating; one is working on designing a logo, another is in a business meeting via skype, and i'm taking a break from writing the content for my website to well, write this blog.

as much as i sit here and reflect on my past, i'm actually really pumped about my future. in a few weeks i have the honour of speaking at a youth group in mississauga, and a few weeks after that, i'll be crossing the last thing off of my original bucket list and jumping out of a plane to celebrate my fave friend's birthday [and hopefully not our death day].

august includes taking the same youth group i'm speaking at on my first official operation hydration run and serving alongside them at st. francis table in the span of two days, which i'm super excited about.

in october, i'm participating in 'ride for refuge' [https://rideforrefuge.org/location/brampton] in hopes to raise money for regeneration, an outreach community designed to care for those who struggle with homelessness in brampton, where i will start volunteering with once my criminal record check clears within the next few weeks.[http://www.regenbrampton.com].

as far as november goes, i'm currently in the beginning stages of planning a trip back to aftica, which makes my heart burst with joy even more ...unless that's all the coffee i've drank today talking ;)

all joking aside, when all is said and done, our past may be behind us, but our future awaits. go get 'em!