“Welcome to Humboldt”.
That’s the first thing everyone keeps saying to me since I first arrived on Nov. 26.
I have felt very welcome by the people but the weather, now that’s a different story.
My first night in Humboldt was -28 with the windchill, a whopping 40 degrees colder than in my old hometown the same night. Talk about cold!
When they ask me how I like Humboldt, I tell them it’s nice but that it is a lot colder than home. I get the same response every time, laughter, followed by warnings of much colder temperatures in December and January.
My name is Chris Lee, I am 24 years old and from Smiths Falls, Ont.
Smiths Falls is a town located approximately 45 minutes southwest of Ottawa. It is a town of about 9000 people, which is actually pretty small for that area. I spent my entire life growing up in Smiths Falls before moving to London, Ontario to go to school.
I attended Fanshawe College where I studied Broadcasting – Television. My time in London was very enjoyable but being from a town much smaller then London, which, at the time I started going there, was the tenth largest city in Canada, it never really felt like home.
After completing my diploma I decided to continue my education where I moved from London to Belleville, Ontario to study Sports Journalism at Loyalist College.
Belleville is a much smaller city than London but it is still quite a bit bigger than Smiths Falls. Belleville is about 2.5 hours northeast of Toronto along the 401 and has a population of just fewer than 49,500.
I stayed in Belleville for seven months before returning back to Smiths Falls to complete my internship with TVCOGECO.
Once I completed my internship I moved back in with my parents who had moved from Smiths Falls to Athens, which is about 35 minutes south of Smiths Falls.
Athens is a township that has a population of just over 3000. I worked as a cook for a golf course in Athens while I looked for a job in the media industry. While I continued looking for a job, I took a new job as a labourer for a metal company making aluminum casting car parts. Since my new job was in Perth, about a 45 minute drive from Athens, I moved back to Smiths Falls to cut down on driving.
After working there for a few months I finally caught a break. I received a job working as a freelance reporter for the Athens Mural, a monthly paper circulated to more then 9000 homes throughout Athens Township and the surrounding area. Although the job was freelance and I only wrote a couple stories a month. It was the opportunity I was looking for to get my foot in the door.
I remained at the metal factory working 12-hour shifts, 4 times a week and wrote for the Mural in my spare time.
While I was with the Mural, I wrote many different stories including art shows, 4-H shows, sports, Remembrance Day ceremonies among others.
My stories changed each month with the exception of one, the Athens Aeros.
Since Athens is a small town their hockey team, the Athens Aeros, are an integral part of the community and a big part of the Mural.
The Aeros play Junior B hockey and are owned by the township. Each month I would write a wrap-up highlighting how the team did this month and a look ahead to the coming month’s action.
I continued looking for work for another year without any luck. I sent out several more applications in mid-October not really expecting much since the last 2 years hadn’t resulted in any concrete work. Within a week I received an offer to come to Humboldt to work for the Journal.
After receiving the offer I began to get very excited about the prospects of my new job, first because I finally got a full-time job in the industry and second because I viewed the move from Ontario to Saskatchewan as an exciting new adventure.
Since I had never been further west then London it was also an opportunity to get some new experiences.
After the initial excitement died down I began thinking about my move and my new town of Humboldt.
Being a fan of Junior A hockey (Smiths Falls has the Bears) I knew about Humboldt long before I received my new job. The Broncos have a reputation around junior hockey as having a good program, especially over the last 15 years with 2 National Championships, a runner-up finish as well as being awarded host city in 2012.
I spent the next few weeks planning my move. Since I need a car to be a journalist I decided the best way to make sure I had a car when I got to Humboldt was to drive mine here. That meant a 30-hour drive from Smiths Falls to Humboldt. I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the drive since 30 hours is a long time to drive by yourself but my bigger concern was Northern Ontario.
I was warned several times about both the weather (they usually get a lot of snow) and about driving at night since deer and moose are much more prevalent there then in the Smiths Falls Area.
I got very lucky along the way avoiding both the miserable weather and the wildlife, seeing short stints of snow and only a single deer. I began the trek on Nov. 23 driving for about 9 hours where I stopped in Cochrane.
The second day I made it to Thunder Bay. By 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon, after 20 hours of driving, I finally made it out of Ontario. I continued on for a couple more hours before stopping in Portage la Prarie.
That meant my last days would also be my shortest day as I only had 6 hours of driving left. I arrived in Humboldt mid-afternoon on Thursday.
I spent the rest of the day Thursday relaxing and recovering from the long drive.
While I am not looking forward to the cold weather I am looking forward to continuing my life in Humboldt. I am excited about sharing this great community with all of you. I look forward to meeting you all at different events throughout the years to come.
