After a weekend chalk-full of adventure and partying, as well as catching up with old friends, spending quality time with my significant other, and talking philosophy with a best friend of mine who is positioned, at the moment, to cause a musical revolution in the cultured city of Victoria, I have finally crossed the Georgia Strait to start my new life in the Lower Mainland; in a part of Greater Vancouver known as Port Coquitlam, to be exact.
Crossing the threshold of change upon my own volition, I forecasted what I felt would be inevitable phases of emotional tempestuousness as a result of the massive personal 'revolution.' And although I was correct in assuming said tempestuousness would occur, I overestimated it by quite a long shot as I have yet to truly cry over the end of my old life and the beginning of my new one. Tears have come to my eyes due to missing my family and friends back up in my hometown, as well as my hometown itself, but in a general sense, I haven't felt the compulsion to ball my eyes out like I expected I would; however, if the compulsion does overtake me, I won't attempt to resist it.
I have felt the toll that such a drastic alteration has had on my mind, body, and soul... such as a feeling of alienation mixed with awe as I walk the streets of my new hometown, aware of the fact that I know only a couple people in the city's entirety.
To be honest, one of my new homes greatest merits in my mind is its generally close proximity to Downtown Vancouver. Had I the money and the ample freedom of choice in the matter, I would probably opt to live directly Downtown where all the big events occur, simply for the sake of being in the thick of it all... but being a recent graduate who is unemployed and not attending any post secondary institutions, boarding with a friend and his mom in outer suburbia was certainly the more realistic and, in some ways, more idealistic choice.
I have yet to check out Occupy Vancouver or any other such stirrings of revolutionary fervor in my general vicinity, but I'm looking forward to the coming adventure in doing so (however, I am hovering as a result of the issue of, "should I get a job before I start exploring? Or would exploring, perhaps, assist in finding a job? Or does it matter? In a general sense, I would just like to explore for the sake of exploring, but perhaps exploring will indirectly assist my job search regardless.") Vancouver is the magnetic force that is drawing me towards it, and I look forward to finally allowing said force to pull me in.
Port Coquitlam, as well as its sister-city of Coquitlam, are both generally well designed places, but the overwhelming consumerist vibe mixed with the suburban lifestyle really has been dragging me down in some aspects; billboards plague highways, shopping centers and strip malls jam the currently flawed economic construct down our throats, and many people seem strange and distant, not to mention jaded and seemingly desensitized and unsatisfied with their lives as they are, and submit to consumer society and free-market economics as the overarching and absolute truths in life that are unalterable and must be appealed to before anything else is possible, placing a great emphasis on the supposed omnipotence and authoritarianism of finances.
I think that's one big reason that Vancouver seems to be drawing me towards it more-so than the Coquitlam area, where any potential for culture has been hijacked by the overwhelming power of corporate agendas and Western consumerism, as opposed to Vancouver where the consumerist aspects do most certainly exist, but the city's beautifully diverse culture controls it and contains it; not the other way around.
I'm going to look in on getting involved with the slam poetry and underground rap scene down here and see where that gets me in the way of opportunities and meeting new people.
Adventure is here, and greater adventure is hurtling my way.
Look out, Vancouver.
Here I come.
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