How immigrating to Canada can be a life changer

Almost every prospective immigrant wants to know what life after PR looks like. There is no real answer to that, considering how everyone’s situation, skills, goals are different. But if I were to give some sort of narrative on the day-to-day life in Canada, then this is what it would look like.

1. You learn to cook, clean, do the dishes, and iron your clothes. In a few months you become an expert at cooking more than just Maggi, washing dishes till they shine, and extol the virtues of cleanliness. Eventually, you start using hand sanitizers and keep some on you at person everywhere you go. The phrase living an independent life, will have a whole new meaning here, and you will embody it to the T.
2. If you live in big cities, you begin to understand how useless a car really is on weekdays, and begin to appreciate the complex, yet somehow functional public transit. Cracking transit jokes becomes your favorite conversation starter, but secretly instagram transit stories.
3. Despite years of drinking tea, you’ll switch to coffee under tremendous peer pressure. You start by thinking how could anyone drink black coffee, and mentally facepalm every time your team goes on a coffee break. Months later, you can be seen standing in queue at Starbucks, getting your tall dark roast customized with hazelnut syrup.
4. You may have never touched a book in your life, and every time you see people reading a book, for the two stops they get into transit for, you ask yourself if that made any sense at all. Few months after landing, your boss will tell you about that book s/he read, and you’ll chime in with your book review. During Christmas, if you ever get a Kindle as a present, you’ll love that person forever.
5. Back home, you may have scoffed at the idea of a 50% sale, thinking that’s just the list price that’s been marked up. But in Canada, you’ll find yourself becoming an expert discount hunter. You’ll memorize coupon codes, you will game the credit card system, you’ll bookmark redflagdeals, you’ll know every money saving trick in the book, and you’ll patiently wait for deal days – black friday, thanksgiving sale, boxing day, etc.
6. You may have worked 9–9 back home, and your weekends would have been lazy stay-at-home days. You would have abhorred outdoor activities, until you get sick and tired of your colleagues at work tell you about their camping, biking, skiing, trekking trip, and all the DIY projects that they do at home. You’ll finally buy a second hand bike and embrace the outdoors like never before.
7. You’ll regard nature and flora with new vigor. You’ll start keeping flowers in a vase, you’ll maintain a small garden balcony, you’ll appreciate the beautiful parks in your neighborhood. Green grass will become your new therapeutic element. You’ll become an expert on kitchen gardening, and tell your friends about that time you grew parsley on your window sill.
8. In the beginning, you’ll meet with friends and family at their place, and then host them at home. You’ll enjoy cooking for them, and learn everything there is to learn about wines, nachos, and cheese. Eventually, you’ll get tired of doing this, and will prefer catching up with people at Tim Hortons or Starbucks, because that saves you tonnes of time and effort to do things that you enjoy more.
9. You may have never played baseball, basketball, ice hockey in your life. These games never made sense to you because cricket, field hockey, and football were real games. But when the Raptors won their first NBA title, you are compelled to learn everything about Basketball. Your Instagram will be all about Raptors/Jays, you’ll buy their jersey, and feel crushed when you find that your favorite player is leaving the team. You’ll finally fit into the sports conversations at the water cooler in your office.
10. If you live in big cities, you’ll start by cursing the moment the rent leaves your bank account. You’ll swear to buy a house at the earliest and start saving for it. You’ll learn all there is to learn about financial readiness, and investment in Canada. You will dream about a large semi-detached house in the suburb, but may end up buying a condo, or a smaller town house. That will be your home for a long time to come, before your family is financially stronger to shift into a larger detached home. You’ll want that to be as far away from the city as possible, because your kids could grow up in a peaceful environment.
11. Once you begin working, you’ll realize that 8 hours of work actually means 8 hours of work, with little time for chit chat. Entire offices go empty at 5 PM, unless you work in a role that is more flexible. If you work hard, and can communicate effectively, you’ll grow quickly here. But you’ll never be paid as much as your US counterparts do. People in technical roles will earn more than their managers. You’ll complain about that with everyone you meet. After many months, you’ll give up and accept that as a fact of life, and move on with your life. You’ll finally begin to appreciate the finer nuances of networking and will switch jobs often.
12. Your first winter will undoubtedly be the worst (depending on where you grew up). You’ll meme the hell out of sub-zero temperatures in your neighbourhood. Your friends and family back home will “wow” your facebook posts. Some will pray for you, others might feel you deserved it. You’ll make all the winter mistakes people told you not to. You will slip on black ice. You will stay at home getting depressed instead of going out. You’ll abandon all thought of outdoors. First snow which looked beautiful, will become your greatest annoyance. You’ll write long blogs on why winters in Canada are the effects of climate change. And then, in your second winter, you’ll fix all your mistakes. You’ll dress up as appropriate, and go out often. You’ll want to learn ice skating or skiing or snowboarding with your friends, despite looking like a fool. You’ll make snowmen, and brace heart attacks to clear the snow from your driveway. You’ll build some cold resistance, and show off. Winter will start to become fun, and you’ll have newfound respect for people living further North.
13. Slowly, but surely, you will do more things that are truly Canadian. In three years, you’ll earn your Canadian citizenship, and feel awesome about finally getting a passport that would let you travel anywhere. At the same time, you’ll apply for an OCI/Non-resident card for your respective country without missing a beat. You’ll miss home often, and you will pray the day never comes when you have to permanently go back home.
14. Your intolerance towards people from other communities, regions, orientation, etc. will gradually go away after you realize that everyone’s just awesome, and it’s just propaganda that kept getting in your way. You’ll eventually champion the true Canadian spirit of multiculturalism and find yourself volunteering for many of the causes.
15. After many years of hoping to still cross the border and get to US somehow, you’ll give up the hope, and develop a more distinct and stronger Canadian identity. You’ll refer to yourself as the True North, and take great pride in all things Canadian. You’ll refer to the Canadian niceness all the time. You’ll visit friends and family in the US often, and get yourself a Nexus card.

And that’s how your life will change, little by little, step by step, opening you up to new experiences, new goals, and new possibilities.

Cheers!