I'm Dreaming Of A Green Christmas
Today marks an important day in the life of Kelsey Unger. Earlier today I handed in my two weeks, marking the departure from what has been my favourite job I've ever had (Side note, Woodcock is hiring if you'd like to take my job). On March 1st at 9am I'm going to be on a plane, flying 2400km, with no intention of returning to Winnipeg. I'm leaving my friends, my family, my job, everything I know and love. Except bikes. I'm taking my bikes along.
I've been wanting to leave Winnipeg for a couple of years now. I remember the first time I went to BC for the Canadian High School Ultimate Championships. I landed in Vancouver, hopped on the Skytrain (the coolest ride I've ever taken on public transport), took a walk around Stanley Park, enthralled by the scenery and huge ships, continued on to Burnaby where I stayed within 500m of where I was staying at all times and didn't really get an appreciation for the terrain.
In 2017 I returned to BC for Ironman 70.3 Victoria (I'll write a post about that sooner or later). At this point, I was a full-blown cyclist, but I didn't know what a hill was. Due to flights being cancelled I didn't have time to explore much, but the race course exposed me to the most beautiful scenery and most interesting roads I've experienced in my 20 years on this planet. After I finished (six hours forty-something minutes if memory serves me right), and headed towards downtown where I had the opportunity to see Oliver Evans, a Manitoban who moved out to Victoria to race. We'd talked a bit on Instagram, but this was my first time actually talking to him. It was quite surreal being surrounded by all the cyclists who I've read about, seeing the jerseys of Rally, H&R, Silber, that just doesn't happen in Winnipeg. It was an awe-inspiring experience, but the next day, I was on a plane back to Winnipeg.
Long story short, I've decided that as an aspiring pro-cyclist, I need to leave Winnipeg, and Victoria is the most practical place to move to. No Visas, relatively low cost (relatively), a huge community of cyclists (seriously, they have more bike shops than Winnipeg with a tenth the population), and a green Christmas. As a person who wants to train outdoors year-round, six months of snow and freezing temperatures aren't the ideal climate to live and train, so instead of continually complaining about how terrible Winnipeg is, I'm moving.
I'll be honest, I'm quite scared. My three-day adventure to Victoria was the only time I've ever travelled alone, and now I'm moving across the country. I don't know how to move across the country, I know very little about the city, and I don't have a job out there. It's a huge risk, but I'm willing to take it. The aforementioned Oliver Evans offered me a place to stay, and he gets home from Tucson either 55 minutes before or 5 minutes after I arrive from Winnipeg. Either way, he's rather conveniently meeting me at the airport, and his dad is driving us to my new home (it feels REALLY weird saying that).
I'd like to think of myself as someone who follows their dreams, filled with a blind faith that things will work themselves out if they're meant to be. This is not one of those times. For the last five years known where my next paycheck would come from, where all the streets go, what the good areas of town are, who I can go to if anything ever goes wrong, and I'm leaving that all behind. I'm moving in with someone who I've only seen for a total of four hours, 2400km from everything I currently call my life.
I promise you that I intended for this post to be happy, I'm moving to a place where I can finally live my dream of a green Christmas, there are just a lot of unknowns. In a couple months, I'll probably write a part 2 about how all of my fears were irrational and it's been a fantastic experience, but for now I'm full of fear, second guessing if this is the right move, scared to step out of my perceiveded bubble of safety.
I've been wanting to leave Winnipeg for a couple of years now. I remember the first time I went to BC for the Canadian High School Ultimate Championships. I landed in Vancouver, hopped on the Skytrain (the coolest ride I've ever taken on public transport), took a walk around Stanley Park, enthralled by the scenery and huge ships, continued on to Burnaby where I stayed within 500m of where I was staying at all times and didn't really get an appreciation for the terrain.
In 2017 I returned to BC for Ironman 70.3 Victoria (I'll write a post about that sooner or later). At this point, I was a full-blown cyclist, but I didn't know what a hill was. Due to flights being cancelled I didn't have time to explore much, but the race course exposed me to the most beautiful scenery and most interesting roads I've experienced in my 20 years on this planet. After I finished (six hours forty-something minutes if memory serves me right), and headed towards downtown where I had the opportunity to see Oliver Evans, a Manitoban who moved out to Victoria to race. We'd talked a bit on Instagram, but this was my first time actually talking to him. It was quite surreal being surrounded by all the cyclists who I've read about, seeing the jerseys of Rally, H&R, Silber, that just doesn't happen in Winnipeg. It was an awe-inspiring experience, but the next day, I was on a plane back to Winnipeg.
Long story short, I've decided that as an aspiring pro-cyclist, I need to leave Winnipeg, and Victoria is the most practical place to move to. No Visas, relatively low cost (relatively), a huge community of cyclists (seriously, they have more bike shops than Winnipeg with a tenth the population), and a green Christmas. As a person who wants to train outdoors year-round, six months of snow and freezing temperatures aren't the ideal climate to live and train, so instead of continually complaining about how terrible Winnipeg is, I'm moving.
I'll be honest, I'm quite scared. My three-day adventure to Victoria was the only time I've ever travelled alone, and now I'm moving across the country. I don't know how to move across the country, I know very little about the city, and I don't have a job out there. It's a huge risk, but I'm willing to take it. The aforementioned Oliver Evans offered me a place to stay, and he gets home from Tucson either 55 minutes before or 5 minutes after I arrive from Winnipeg. Either way, he's rather conveniently meeting me at the airport, and his dad is driving us to my new home (it feels REALLY weird saying that).
I'd like to think of myself as someone who follows their dreams, filled with a blind faith that things will work themselves out if they're meant to be. This is not one of those times. For the last five years known where my next paycheck would come from, where all the streets go, what the good areas of town are, who I can go to if anything ever goes wrong, and I'm leaving that all behind. I'm moving in with someone who I've only seen for a total of four hours, 2400km from everything I currently call my life.
I promise you that I intended for this post to be happy, I'm moving to a place where I can finally live my dream of a green Christmas, there are just a lot of unknowns. In a couple months, I'll probably write a part 2 about how all of my fears were irrational and it's been a fantastic experience, but for now I'm full of fear, second guessing if this is the right move, scared to step out of my perceiveded bubble of safety.
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