September 11, 2020
Back in January, I decided I was going to take the month of September off and travel to Europe. I was going to visit friends in Ireland and Germany, and explore Italy and Scotland. I was excited to venture across the ocean before buckling down and truly entering the working world. So I lined up work to start in October, after finishing school at the end of August.
Then the WHO declared COVID a pandemic. I immediately cancelled all my existing travel plans, which were supposed to occur in the Spring. Luckily, they were booked with Canadian airlines, and I was given one year to spend the money on other flights. (Although who knows if I’ll even feel comfortable flying this year.) I highly suspected I wouldn’t be going to Europe come September, and thankfully I hadn’t booked anything. Within a few months of WHO’s declaration, I was convinced that I would not be flying this September. As the months wore on, I began considering travelling within Canada. However, I noticed that during COVID screenings I completed to attend the dentist and other locations, they began asking if I’d been out of province. Many provinces were also still advising against non-essential travel to other provinces, and some even required quarantine upon arrival. Plus, where would I stay? What could I do? So many services are still closed or operating at a very limited capacity. It just felt like a big hassle to travel out of province, especially on my own.
So I began looking into doing things closer to home.
One idea was camping. I haven’t gone back country camping since I was 14 years old…and even then, it was never by choice. My boyfriend has been talking about wanting to go camping together for the past few years, but I was never all that enthused. But then the perfect scenario to go camping arose. COVID. Social distancing. A need for novelty. So we decided to do it. We borrowed gear from our family members, invited some friends,
and booked a site through my old summer camp. And off we went. At times it was very rainy and windy (we later learned a Tornado had struck not too far away), our friends’ tent flipped and all their stuff was soaked for a night, we struggled to light fires to cook food because the wood was drenched, but survived! And despite the effort required, we had a lot of fun!
We swam (well I jumped in for 30 seconds), we hiked, we paddled, and we ate a lot of smores. It was quite the experience. One that I would definitely not have had this year if COVID wasn’t a thing. Even though I wish I was jetting around Europe right now, I think it’s pretty cool that I am getting to have new and different experiences than I typically would, because the context is different. Although it’s not what I had planned for, my time off has certainly been interesting.
Now, I’m at an inn just north of Muskoka, with my mum. It’s been a very cloudy and wet week. I think pre-COVID, I would have been really disappointed and frustrated by the rain. But I find that I’m really trying to embrace each moment and what I have right now. As my boyfriend quoted to me recently, “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.” I’m taking that to heart, and this week my mum and I are bundling up and still doing all the activities we had planned to do here. Even though it’s been below 15 degrees since we got here, we’ve hiked, canoed, and explored this phenomenal outdoor gallery/wonderland/graveyard (Screaming Heads – check out the photo!). Now, we're off to Prince Edward County.
I may not be on the continent I had expected to be on, or enjoying the weather I had hoped for, but I’m trying to get out of the city and get some new experiences, despite the travel restrictions imposed due to COVID. And I’m still grateful for this month in between school and work.
- Roo