Hello lovely souls,
It has been months since my last post. As I mentioned in my previous post, nearly a year ago, changes were coming, and I anticipated that it would take only a few months; however, it took much longer than expected. I spent these past few months working not only on my website but also on myself, I have been adjusting to my new life as an adult and learned a lot about life, I am now officially ready to rebrand my website and share my experiences with you. I will break this down into sections and tell you about where I have been and what I have learned as well as what is next to come.
Ontario to British Columbia
Back in September 2019, I moved from Ontario to British Columbia for college. Moving halfway across Canada on my own was not an easy task, as you can imagine, it had many ups and downs. I spent my first three months in an apartment owned by the school boards here and worked for a charity company, which turned out to be sketchy. Adjusting to life in a new province and attending a real school for the first time (I was homeschooled my entire life) was a bit challenging for a freshly 18-year-old girl. The job I had was stressful, and the manager did not care for my health or working around my class schedule, so I left that job and started a new one at a movie theatre, which I still have to this day and enjoy very much.
My roommate at this first apartment was not ideal. She was very messy and loud, it was hard to concentrate on my homework living there, and I was not used to transit in the big city, plus my school was a good 40-minute bus ride from where I was living. I got homesick after a couple of weeks but still keep pushing through since I knew this was my dream. I had to adjust, which I eventually did with the help of my school’s consular, who gave me advice on being away from my family and how to enjoy this new environment.
The Landlady
My lease at my first apartment was up, and I decided it was time to rent a room closer to my school for a more affordable price. Once Christmas break was over I moved into a new place that was only an 8 minute bus ride to my school, this was my first time renting a room, and I was not aware of what the future held with this landlady…
I only lived at this place for three months, and let me tell you this was not a pleasant experience. When I first moved in my landlady got mad that my suitcase made a sound when I brought it upstairs and once I started to unpack my things she said my door creaked too loud when I closed it, So I just tried to be very quiet doing anything in my bedroom which wasn’t too much of an issue, or so I thought.
Fast forward about a month, everything seemed to be going okay I was at school most of the time and preferred to study in the library since the energy I got there motivated me and put me in a proper mindset for my work. I was also working on my social skills and meeting up with friends on weekends that I wasn’t working. One thing that stuck out to me though, was every-time I came home, and my landlady would tell me how “Sexy” and “hot” I looked, that weirded me out. Still, I just assumed she was nice until she started telling her daughter to be “sexy like me” I found this strange and kind of uncalled for. Still, it wasn’t any of my business so I just thanked her and continued with my day, as the days went by my landlady would make up weird rules or complain about everything, it started small with the door closing too loud or my keys making noise when I unlocked the door. But one day I was cooking, and she complained that my food smelt too strong. I was ban from cooking anything that had a smell, then when I did cook the fan was too loud, or I took up too much room, I couldn’t have more than one idem in the fridge at a time (one apple that’s it or just one bowl of rice nothing else) So I stopped cooking completely.
Since I was ban from cooking, I wasn’t able to eat, which affected how I worked in school and at my job, I was always tired and knew it wasn’t healthy. So I started looking for a new place which took forever. As time went on she made up more bizarre rules, I had to throw out any feminine hygiene products outside in the compost, and I couldn’t keep anything in the cupboard, I can’t use the microwave, I had to put plastic bags on the sink handle etc., etc., they kept getting weird. Also, she never called me by name. I was just referred to as “girl.”
Once I found a place I just packed my bags and left one night when she wasn’t home, and I got an angry phone call from her she was screaming and saying how “dumb, disrespectful, and rude” I was, but I didn’t care since she was driving me insane and I had to get out of there.
A Fresh Start
After that mentally and physically draining the first two semesters of school and life, I needed a fresh start. My new apartment was perfect the landlords are the sweetest people ever they helped me move in and bought some new furniture for me and even offered me to join them for dinner on my first night there, I finally felt welcomed.
I started to focus more on managing my anxiety, which had many ups and downs, but was at an all-time low living at that last apartment and brought me back to square one, all that work I had been doing for nothing, I thought. I got back into my groove of practicing my mindfulness, yoga, meditation going on walks and jogs. I found a healthy balance of school, work, free time, friends and homework time. Life was going smoothly again.
My friend moved into my new apartment, and we started morning workouts and yoga, cooking together and splitting up groceries every week. After a while, though, we realized our lifestyles and scheduled did not fit that very well, so now we both work out on our times but still cook and do groceries together.
COVID 19
After living in my new place for a couple of months, being in a good headspace managing this balance of life, the pandemic had begun.
My job went on hiatus, and the city shut down, the school had to be moved to online classes, everything had changed once again. However, I had been through enough not to let this ruin my mood. I enjoyed the first two weeks off work on a school break and just relaxing, catching up on anime and Netflix, video chatting to my family, etc. After a while, I got bored, and my work informed us that we would not be opening anytime soon, so I started applying for temporary jobs and eventually got hired at a grocery store doing graveyard night shopping. I had to readjust my life once again. This time it wasn’t too hard since I can adapt to change easily thanks to those first few months moving out here. I got lots of hours working and still managed to do my homework, attend classes with caffeine, and keep a positive attitude.
What’s Next
This brings us to June. I have had an exciting few months since moving to British Columbia, and even though I had been through so many rough patches, I always remained positive and did my best to push through those days that made me want to give up on everything. I have learned so much about the world and myself in such a short amount of time. I am ready to continue with this journey we call life and accomplish great things by living in the moment and making a good one every day no matter what’s thrown my way.
The plans I have for this site are much more than fashion. I want to take you on my self-discovery, show you what I have and am learning, show you around the world, take you to new places, go on hikes, workout and meditate, create something new and experience life, we only have one life and have to make the best of it! I want to share my secrets to being positive, how to push through on those hard days, how to accomplish great things and live. I hope you enjoy this new chapter in my life. I am so excited to see what the future holds and how we, as people, will evolve and adjust to everything that has happened. 2020 is a roller coaster that’s for sure, during these hard and confusing times I want my website to be that positive space that will help cleanse your mind, body and spirit, together we will live and do great things.
Remember to spread positivity and be yourself,
xoxo Jaiden
Jaiden Dainae 