Well friends, recently I’ve been in the midst of making big decisions again. It seems just when I feel I’ve figured things out, I appear at another crossroads with a big choice to make. Today, I’m going to discuss how I’ve recently made one big decision that involved changing my mind – and why it’s okay to do so, even if we feel our mind might have been set on a different route. Read the blog for a deep dive into why it’s okay to change your mind.

So let’s get the big news out right away: I’ve made the decision to move back to Toronto. This news may come as a shock to some people. Especially if you’ve read some of my posts over the past year, which discussed a lot about differences in lifestyle between Toronto and BC. I wrote a lot about success vs. happiness, identifying what we want vs. what we need, and the overwhelming pressure to have everything figured out. Disconnecting, uncertainty, and lifestyle changes are all topics I’ve written about at length as I compared how I lived in Toronto and how I lived here in BC. In many ways, I am sure it seemed that I had decided Toronto was not a good fit with me and I was happy with my choice to be living in BC. That is definitely still partially true: I was happy with my choice to be living in BC – but that doesn’t capture the whole story.

Initially, my choice to move back to BC after living in Toronto for work was to re-connect with my family and have some time to explore my creativity. I had just won The Canadian Book Club Awards for Poetry and had released Blooming earlier that year. It felt like a good sign for me to fully lean into writing and explore it. Much of this year has been dedicated to doing just that. I had the wonderful opportunity to connect with so many people in the community, attend incredible events, and explore different avenues of sharing my book with the world. I also spent a ton of time working on my second book (join my email list for the scoop!). Connecting with family was also very important and something I was able to do a lot of, since I was living closer to everyone.

Unfortunately, focusing so much on my creativity and very little on my career has not put me in the best financial position. I was aware this might happen going into this year. However, I’ve come to realize that it is not financially sustainable for me to pursue writing at this level of intensity – at least, not right now. Perhaps one day I will be able to only write, but it’s not in the cards for the time being. I came to this realization a few months ago, and have been trying to sort out the best course of action since then. After much deliberation, I have made the choice to ultimately, change my mind, and move back to Toronto again. I’ll be returning to the job I had previously in Toronto – thankfully, I took a leave of absence this past year, and have this return as an option.

Changing your mind is a scary thing, especially when I had been quite set on my choice to leave Toronto in the first place. Even though it is scary, I am choosing to view it as a shift in priorities. A year ago, when I left, my priority was time with family and my creativity. Now, my priority is financial stability moving forward – which I think we could all use given our current economy. Regardless of the reason, it’s okay to change your mind! This is a phrase I will need to keep repeating to myself, over and over, until it really sinks in. Life is all about changes, and your twenties in particular are the time to change your mind. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over changing what we thought we wanted, or who we thought we were, because now is the time to explore, shift, change, and grow.

Maybe I wrote this blog to make sense of things, as much for me as for anyone else. It’s a big choice to move back and truthfully, I’m a bit scared about that leap. Simultaneously, the excitement is there too. Change can be a good thing and I’m going to choose to embrace it as such. And I will allow myself to believe that it’s okay to change your mind. I hope you can believe it, too. ♥