Opportunity can come in many forms, at any time and often the difficulty is deciding whether or not we’re prepared to leave the comfort zone and take advantage when we’re sideswiped by chance.
Six years ago I was working in a factory in north eastern Ontario, covered in itchy sawdust all day, sweating bullets through summer and freezing solid in the winter. I spent the better part of 10 years doing this until I decided on something different, packed up my belongings and moved to the city for college.
I wasn’t unfamiliar with the Greater Toronto Area because I’ve always had relatives there, but it was a big change, far away from my little hometown and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to leave my safe little bubble to seize the opportunity.
After two years in college I’d adjusted to the suburban town of Oakville where my school was, I’d made some good friends and when I graduated I didn’t want to leave.
I didn’t even know where to go or how to start — I just knew there was no work for journalists fresh out of college there and I’d be leaving the area at some point soon.
My friend let me move in with him in Brantford, which was a few hours away, so I didn’t have to go back up north while I job searched. For those who don’t know, north eastern Ontario is boring and there are few prospects in terms of any work, let alone reporting, and southern Ontario, where all the cities are, is just more happening all around.
That’s when my next opportunity came.
My friend Jon with whom I’d graduated saw a job posting for a newspaper position in Lloydminster and with his brother living in Edmonton at the time, he was able to come out west for a visit, do a job interview and as luck would have it, he got the gig.
Conveniently, one of his new coworkers was talking of quitting so Jon passed my resume along, bussed me out to stay with him and before we knew it we were working together at the Lloydminster Source.
I’d never been out of province before so jumping on that bus with about two weeks notice made me a little uneasy to say the least, but with our teachers frequently telling us we’d likely never get work in this shrinking market I put trepidation aside and bought a one way ticket to the promised land.
The funny part is my dear old colleague Jon couldn’t handle the pressure of being so far from home and was gone a month later; I was on my own but I stuck it out and had a good two and a half year run in the Border city before my layoff this February.
I spent three months on unemployment, desperately applying all over the country to every newspaper job available, wondering if I’d have to suck it up and go back to northern Ontario, that former sanctuary I was so reluctant to leave in the first place.
I went over this a bit in one of my first columns here, but David Willberg, whom many of you know, replied to my application in April and the following month I was leaving my most recent home in Lloydminster and pulling into the Winky’s parking lot for my first night in Estevan.
Chances to do new things in life present themselves all the time and it’s easy to politely refuse, or straight up run from them, because leaving the comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable.
But to think six years ago I was breaking my back, unsure if I would, or could, ever leave my little town, then two years later pining because I didn’t want to ever leave Oakville, and then four short months ago staring out the window of my Lloydminster apartment, hoping I wouldn’t have to drag myself back to that little town — I’d say breaking free from the comfort zone is the best move anyone can make.
If you see an opportunity, jump in with both feet and seize it, or you might end up rotting to death in the cosiness of your own mediocrity, wondering why you couldn’t muster the sand to throw yourself into the ether of endless odds.
