I love you, Halifax. I’ve lived in this city for 22 and a half years, and now I am leaving town. The memories that occupy space in my head will never fade. This is an ode to you, and the beautiful people that live inside this city making it breathe and glow everyday. This is an ode to walking down to Armdale Pizza as a child to buy candy. An ode to watching my old high-school get torn to the ground and turned into a garden. This is an ode to the silent understandings you have on the first 1 Spring Garden of the day from Mumford terminal.

This is an ode to the ocean that not only gives life, but takes life away. An ode to the artists that make this city what it is. An ode to the music scene for giving me the life to go on (I wouldn’t have made it without you.) This is an ode to never being able to go walk around downtown without running into at least one person you know (or one person you hate.)

This is an ode to everyone. An ode to the city that I could draw a map of with my eyes closed. An ode to the fact that almost every 20-something in this city has a love/hate relationship with the city itself, but the fact that we know deep down this is where our heart is.

I’m leaving, but I know I will be back. I’ll always be back. —left and leaving