The Journey

Travel has a way of stripping things down to their essentials. Tickets. Gates. Time zones. The people you’re trying to reach. This journey wasn’t just about getting from Canada to Greece — it was about meeting my mother somewhere in the middle. We flew separately but toward the same point. I left Toronto for Frankfurt. My mom left Montreal for Frankfurt. Two cities, two departures, one plan: meet in Germany and continue on together to Thessaloniki. Before we left, I made one

The Last Three Weeks The last three weeks before I left Canada didn’t feel like a countdown. They felt like compression—everything heavy and unresolved being packed into a very small amount of time. I was leaving. That much was certain. What everything else meant was not. I packed up an apartment I had lived in for almost twelve years. Twelve years of routines, of becoming different versions of myself in the same rooms. I didn’t cry because I was leaving the apartment. I crie