I used to love visiting Halifax, I would save up my lunch money for months just to make a trip up when I was in high school and didn’t have a job. I made friends so easily up here, and the atmosphere was fantastic. Several years later I finally made it up here and my friends I made years ago have moved away, the atmosphere has changed and the people all stare but never speak. It’s frustrating that I spent so long trying to get here, but it doesn’t make me happy like the weekend visits used to. I’ve been here for months and have yet to really make any friends whom I see regularly, when in one weekend as a teenager I’d make several. I wish I knew what changed exactly so I could fix it, but yet I’ll never know. Halifax I used to know please come back. Or perhaps it’s me who has changed, and am longing for the old me. Either way, I wish things were as I expected. —Work, Sleep, Work, Sleep, Work
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2012.
I wish I knew what changed exactly so I could fix it, but yet I’ll never know. <- you grew up. Adults don't hang around downtown in front of the library looking to make friends. It was great for me too when I was 15, but now I work down here and the 'magic' is gone. But that's ok. Time to find magic elsewhere... don't feel like halifax peaked in high school.
just like the old saying, that you can never go back, it is true. i remember when you didn’t have to lock and barricade your doors at night, or even the daytime. yes, halifax has changed, and deffinately not for the better.
i also remember when you could actually walk up to a stranger, say hi, ask the time, and not get shot or maced, for fuck’s sake. yes the times they certainly are achanging, and hopefully, most of us will be long dead, before it gets any worse. than it is now that is. i feel sorry for you o.p., a hint tho, stay away from the bars, they are all overpriced and persnickity. in some, if you don’t have your complete birth history, they won’t even let you in the door, goody for that. but there are places around town that are cool, you just have to check the phone book. the names will give you hints what kind of places they are.
Become a DJ and start a food blog, OB. Don’t forget to open an overpriced clothing shop where the rent is expensive and market is shallow.
What secretagent said. The way you view the world has changed, you have evolved, congratulations. Those people you made friends with are still there but they’re teenagers.
I’m sorry OP, there’s no easy way to say this…it’s just not working. I think we should see other people. It’s not you, it’s me.
sincerely,
Halifax
That was then, OP, this is now. Try volunteering or join a club to meet some new buddies.
depending on the sex and age of the o.p., i would say this is one of the best places to find chatters, and maybe a friend or few. i have always hated halifax, as a whole. but in later years, i have learned to co-exist with most of the vermin that make up the city proper.
not saying that i abide by how this city is run, or most of the people, but you have to take a lot of bad, with the little good. halifax can be a real nice place to call home, if you can find a fairly livable area, one that doesn’t come with nightly shootings or robberies.
being an old school anarchist, i have seen just about everything, everywhere. so nothing really puts a wow in me any more.there are places to eat, drink yourself in a stupor, and even to get laid. and then there is the real entertainment. but seriously o.p., you have to look around. i will even suggest getting to one of the bitcher’s summits sometime, tho i don’t bother to go myself, for personal reasons.some of the folk that infest this site are downright cool and charming, and a load of laughs. ttfn is one.
Overall, Halifax isn’t such a bad place, and it’s prospects are looking better after October when we eject the mobile corpse and some of the dross councillors.
Build 6 sky scrapers, move shitty housing to Shannon Gulag, gas the bums and panhandlers and sell NSCAD to Crayola for $1.
Crayola will be expecting change back…
I wish I could stop reading the paper…
the more I read day in and day out, the more resentment I have for this place and some of the people that inhabit it.
Everywhere becomes less exciting when you’re in it all the time *double entendre intended*
Another old saying: You can NEVER go back. Everytime you do you find it is never what you thought it would be. Yes, I agree, you grew up and moved on. That part of Halifax is no longer available to you. Learn to appreciate other parts of Halifax that are. Grow up in other words.
OP
They stare because past the age of 21 or even 18 something happens. People get scared. They start seeing his or her energy as an investment just like anything else and this makes them 5 times more judgmental. The 5 close friends they have are enough for them and they stare because they want to analyze how you react. They don’t realize it but they are socio predatory, and not intelligent enough to know how to go about with the right questions to get to know you let alone know if they want to get to know you. The actual situation is that they haven’t really “accomplished” anything to see where they “stand”. This makes any self positive reinforcement of their ego mint; and most people have came and gone. When your 15 to 19 you’re all in it together with the potential of where life leads. Past that most people are terrified.
Thanks for sharing Daniel. Is that from an essay in your first year psychology class?
Hay Now! No Dissing N.S.C.A.D. Where would we be without government subsidized Art & Culture? No more of this…
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/…
…that’s where.
Bastard Fish
I see what you’re saying. OP just needs to take it less personally if people act like fuck nuts. Especially in this city
I moved here june 26, love it for the most part, except for food prices, lack of assistance for disabled, & nasty stroller users..
I love the Ferry, the water, the weather, friendly people on the buses (Dartmouth), small town feeling out here, in the east end, slower pace of life, I espicially love the nature, the trees here in my area, walking the hills in Halifax, ability to BREATHE!! (try doing that in southern ontario) bumping into people that have like me moved here from ontario, especially Hamilton or T.O, I love the Alderny Library, I love eating at Hope Cottege or Margret’s, or St Mary’s Basilica, I love the simple life, of existing, of living simply, I love the camp out near Pugwash, I love the church I belong to, the old style atmosphere at tim hortons in my area, the old way it was in my hometown, people actually enjoying other peoples company, I love the buses (Very Clean), I like the new bridge Terminal, The VIA station is nice, walking around downtown Halifax is a lot of fun, especially with my fiance..
yeah, you can say I have fallen in love with the HRM..
now what do I do to become a true “haligonion?”