We all know what’s happening-god, it’s on every website, every news story, the only topic of conversation on anyone’s mind. Coronovirus has swept across the globe, leaving a strange new world in its wake.
March 26, 2020, I flew back to Canada from Glasgow. It was the right decision. The last accessible repatriation flight from Scotland, and a televised plea from my prime minister for Canadians living abroad to come home barely convinced me. My year abroad cut short, I was more than a little bit devastated.
Glasgow became home so easily. I’m grateful; my exchange time was more than I ever could have wished or hoped for. But I still felt incomplete. As part of returning home, I had to cancel a month-long trip, including a school trip to Orkney(an archaeologist’s dream) and road-tripping through the highlands with my mum. It meant I had to say goodbye to my friends, with no idea as to the next time I’d see them. It meant I had to say goodbye to the life I got to live while I was there; visiting the Kelvingrove art gallery in between classes, adventures in the highlands, debating, board game nights with residence friends. After spending so much time building a life in Toronto, the ease and comfort of the one that grew around me in Glasgow left me feeling uprooted upon departure.
I’m working on the good things. I’m safe, and my friends and family are safe. I have healthcare. I was not locked out of the country. I still got to experience a semester and a half in Scotland. I have amazing friends. I am lucky. I know I’m lucky. But, sometimes, life sucks, and it’s OK to be sad without it discounting your gratitude.
I still have much more Scotland content coming out-with the hectic move, the end of classes drawing nearer, and the adjustment to being in Quarantine, I haven’t been able to work on them as much as I wanted to, but they are coming. I will also have new food content coming your way; finally, back in a kitchen, my little brother and I have been recipe testing and brainstorming like crazy.
So, yeah. I’m back in Canada, I’m in quarantine, and god only knows, I’m missing Scotland. But hey, that’s life.
Time for Scotland to grow its tourism and related businesses
I hate that your year was cut short. It does just suck… a dirty rotten trick played on us all, this virus. I am happy that you are home safe, and healthy.