So, where do we go from here?

I lived and worked in the city of Toronto for over twenty years. The city was never kind to me in the sense that it was easy to live there. I struggled like half the population struggles with earning enough money to stay afloat. Getting ahead required a level of insanity that often included taking more than one job. This isn't a new thing but it is something that has been met with increasing difficulty for several years, escalating even more during this Pandemic. Simply put, people can't afford to live there anymore. So what do you do? I'm not a quitter but the world is changing on a level that is difficult to measure. I don't mean in a simple way, where the times are "a-changing", and you either choose to change or you choose to remain, left to stew in your own stagnant life juices. There is no choice here. This isn't just about surviving until you figure something better out. We can't just sit and wait for things to get back to normal. I'm not sure that is even going to be painted with a brush that we even fully grasp at this point. What we need to do is find a way to Sur-thrive.

I kept all of this in mind when I left Toronto. That's right, I quit. I quit my career as a live-in Superintendent for a Condominium Corporation located in the heart of the city. I quit the industry, but more importantly, I quit my bullshit. People get stuck in their own perception of reality. How they work, live, and dress. How they pass the time, how they make a dollar and how they spend it. I mean, I did. I was stuck in this idea that I couldn't go anywhere else or do anything else. When the Pandemic hit, I was just happy to have a job and keep working but Covid-19 changed everything about people. Our habits and habitats were affected and not in a good way. I am not saying that everything is (or was) bad. This isn't a fear-driven tirade, this is an acknowledgment that it is time to rethink our strategies.

So what did I do? I moved up North from whence I came, to a small town very close to where I grew up. I want to make it clear, that just because I was originally from the area, it didn't make it easier for me to adapt. I was living in the most culturally diverse city in the world. My blood pumped to the beat that is the city's heart. Imagine trying to bring that rhythm down to harmonize with the slow and steady pulse of a small-town community. It wasn't easy, but I did it and I love it. It was a change that needed to happen so that I could recentre and focus on myself. I went back to preparing home-cooked, budget meals instead of throwing money at restaurants and food delivery services. I'm using online marketplaces and auctions to both list items that I no longer really need and to find items that I do.

What is next? Well, it is all about working remotely, isn't it? The idea that you could be anywhere in the world and turn a profit from the comfort (perhaps, more importantly, safety) of your own habitat or current environment is uniquely appealing. It is a game-changer in the world of working and currently with the Pandemic it is a lot more of a viable option than in the past. Writing, Content creation, Transcription, and even web chat and tele-jobs are hiring people to work from home. This isn't a how-to article but the all-powerful Google can answer any of those follow-up questions that you have and point you in the direction that you are looking to go. All that I am trying to do is get people as motivated as I am to not only roll with the punches but to make the changes necessary to sur-thrive in this new strange world that we find ourselves in.