Tiarn
It's all too easy for life to become routine and for our best intentions to get lost in the flux of changing situations, seasons, company and adventures. Sometimes it takes a sharp kick to motivate us again, or sometimes its an organic conversation with a work colleague that reminds you of something you find fascinating. In this case it was both in equal measure; my friend Tiarn provided the inspiration, and I had to provide the kick.
I met Tiarn through work, we've had a lot of changes to our team with the commencement of a new tourist season in Banff and thankfully we've got another amazing team. Tiarn works part time at Roots alongside her full time job and her presence is such a refreshing one. It was over the course of a steady closing shift last month that we began discussing travelling, our current home and our old ones, and when my determination was reignited to give more life to this project.
Tiarn is from South Australia but feels at odds with the mindset of her hometown, in pursuit of anything else she ventured across the Pacific and has found contentment within the landscape and populous of Banff. I wanted to explore her feelings for her paradise and get them down in writing which she courteously consented too. We settled ourselves down at Brew Pub on the evening of July 2nd, where we ordered beer and food, (surprising to the both of us after each of our Canada Day celebrations the day before) and thus commenced one of the most comfortable interviews I've conducted so far.
I already knew that Tiarn felt like a fish out of water back home, but I wanted a clearer picture of why that was. I started by asking what life was like for her back in Australia, "Boring, it's so boring *laughs* Everyone I know just wants to sit at home, save for a house, work 9-5, get married, have kids, just your standard, middle-class, shitty life. That's not what I want, I don't want to do that. I've travelled a little bit here and there, and I don't know why Canada was on my list but I knew I always wanted to move overseas. So I was like 'Fuck it, lets do Canada! Why not?'" To further prove the overwhelming number of people whose outlook is at odds with hers, she added "Everyone here [in Banff] is Australian, I've not met anyone I could potentially know because where I'm from everyone just stays at home. Literally no one leaves, it's the most boring place on earth."
Having alluded to travelling a little already, I asked if this was the first time Tiarn had lived abroad, "Yes. I've travelled before but I've never travelled by myself. I came here solo trip, was planning to stay here for six months, just doing a winter season learning how to snowboard, have a white Christmas, and as soon as I got to Banff I was like 'I'm staying'. I called my Mum and said 'I don't think I'll be home in April' and she was like 'What?!'"
Then she told me a story that came with a disclaimer; "This is going to make me sound like a terrible person, but I was in my cousin's wedding, as a bridesmaid, *giggles nervously*, the wedding was in April, I didn't go! I went to Florida instead! *laughs* She was fine with it, she was like 'I know how you want to live your life, you do you, it's fine'. She was the best person, she was such a sweetheart; I told her I was going to Florida instead and she was like 'Do it, it's fine, have so much fun for me!' and I'm like 'I don't deserve you!' *laughs* I still feel bad about it but I wouldn't change what I chose to do because when am I going to be able to do it again? And when we went it was with my whole house, I had lived there for a week. I was dying sick on the couch on Boxing Day, and one of my housemates was in the kitchen and she says 'Tiarn do you want to come to Florida with us?' so I was like 'Yes.' *laughs* So we sat around the kitchen table organising it, and they said April and I said 'Yeah sure, no worries' and we just booked it, there and then! That was the craziest shit I've ever done; I would never have done that with three strangers I met literally a week ago, it was so crazy."
However crazy it seemed, and slightly against the original plan, it totally payed for Tiarn to be spontaneous; "We still had four months before we were going, but we all got along so well. Two of the girls were moving overseas, so one of them was Canadian but going over to New Zealand and one of them was Taiwanese but her visa had finished. So from Orlando airport we all caught three different flights; three of us flew back to Banff, one of us got on a flight to New Zealand, and the other one to Taiwan. It was the saddest day of my life! *laughs* That's why I would never take back going, even if I could go to Florida at a different time, I would have missed out on going with them, and it being a 'See you later' kind of thing."
Going from one parallel to another, half way across the world, I wanted to know if Tiarn found it hard adjusting to her new life here in Canada, "At the time I think I found it really hard, in hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but it did take me a month to find work. I arrived in winter, two months before Christmas and nothing was going. My original plan was to move to Whistler but I didn't like it so I moved to Banff, I just caught a bus. I've done so much stuff that I never would have dreamed of doing. I'm a planner, and this time round I'm just winging everything. I'm stressed but I'm also having the time of my life!" I know exactly what Tiarn meant by this; there is such a strange definition of normal life here and the things that would usually stress out any functioning individual, don't seem to phase a single one of us. Bizarre living situations, barely surviving between our paycheques and spontaneous adventures to anywhere are as much a normal part of our lives as are eating and sleeping. It's unusually comfortable to us, and completely part of the magic, "It was very up and down, but I'd do it again, again and again and I will, I will do it again."
Having lived in Canada for a considerable while now, a similar amount of time to myself, I asked Tiarn what was her highlight so far; "That's a tough one, because everything, the whole experience in general has just been so uplifting and amazing. I don't know, I mean back home I have a lot of anxiety and stuff, being here I've hardly had any, I've got none. Maybe I'll have a stressful day here or there, I might get a little bit [stressed] but it's not all the time, it's not something I have to think about. That's probably the best part of it all; that mentally I'm perfectly fine." This was something that I could whole-heartedly relate to. When I was at home last year, working solely towards my goal of getting here, my mental health took a turn for the worse. There were a lot of factors that attributed to the state that my head was in, existential crisis' and the sorts, but since setting foot in this country and living the dream that I had dedicated a year of my life working towards, my anxieties and paranoia simply melted away and I was blissfully happy. My peace of mind is without a doubt one of the things I am most grateful for about this trip. Of course I feel as Tiarn does, there are so many wonderful aspects to life here that it's impossible to pick just one, "I don't have one thing, we'll go on a trip out, like when we went to Jasper the other week and the whole weekend we were like 'I can't believe this is our lives'. Even just a day trip to Moraine Lake it's like 'Pinch me'. You just feel so elated to be doing what we're doing. I appreciate life so much more being here, I love it."
We both attributed a big part of why we feel so content here to the mindset that all of us transient workers in Banff have; we're all here to have adventures and enjoy the mountains. We're all outgoing and it makes getting on with everyone you meet so easy. "Life is great here, and it helps that everyone's in the same position. No matter who you meet here, you're going to get on with them unless they're a shitty person. When I'm back home I'm the odd one out, everything I want is so different to what everyone else wants. I don't have anyone to talk to about the things I want to do. Everyone's like 'You don't want kids? you don't want to settle down? you don't want to buy a house?' and I'm like 'No, not yet, not now'. I would rather spend that money on a trip round the world. I feel like there's this pressure to conform to what everyone else wants to do. Here it's like 'Fuck that!'. Most of my group don't want kids and we can talk about that and no ones like, 'Your life is practically over if you don't have kids' but your life is over if you DO have kids! I love that everyone here is on the same page, I think that's what makes everything feel better about being here rather than back at home."
Now she's found somewhere she feels more at home and in touch with the people around her, I asked Tiarn what she had learnt about herself while she had been here, "I feel like I'm able to do so much more than I ever thought I could do. I've always doubted myself, like super self-conscious, social anxiety, and now I'm here with someone who wants to interview me about myself, I met a girl I chatted to online the other day in Japanese. I'm pretty much happy to talk to whoever, whenever. It's definitely helped me for the better, to be able to chat to people, be more open. I'm able to do so much more than I ever thought and it makes me feel so good." It's always so inspiring to see people blossom and own their lives, to be doing what they love and see them shine for it, good for you Tiarn.
We had inadvertently touched upon the subject of the our fellow travellers already, but I wondered what direct impact Tiarn felt they had impressed upon her, "I just admire so many people; its just so different to back home because everyone's living that mundane, 9 to 5 life, whereas here, everyone's so different. Even if they're just passing through, here for a night and they're on their way to their next location, literally have pennies in their account but they're doing what they love. It's the craziest shit, some of it I could never do, but I admire so many people for doing whatever they're doing. Living your best life doesn't necessarily mean having a house or having kids, I'm really against it, have you seen that running theme? *laughs* Living your best life is living what's best for you, and everyone's so different so I love hearing everyone's stories."
Now she knows she's capable of anything, I wanted to know what Tiarn had planned next and how long she would stay in Canada, "I'm leaving in August; I'll go home for a year and then me and a friend are planning on travelling round Asia for a year or two. So when I get home I have to figure out all the visas for that, because I want to try work in both Japan and China, I'd love to work in Korea as well. That's the only thing that makes going home seem less daunting, I have a reason, a goal. I just have to go home, figure it out and save some money. I think a year will be enough time to see everyone and then I'll be like 'I'm out again.'"
We had spoken prior to the interview and throughout its duration in a few tangents away from my questions about Tiarn's interest in Asia, but I did not know the source of it. I had to ask where it came from: "I've been to Japan before, and the first time I went I was like 'I need to do it, I need to do something here. I want to stay here for a long period of time.' I'd always wanted to do a snow season somewhere, but Canada was top of my list, so I thought I'd do Canada and then Japan. I've been to Japan twice now and I just love it; the people are so kind, it's just an amazing place. You have temples and all that historical, traditional kind of stuff, but then you go to the city and it's absolutely whack. I went to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, and you walk into this giant, monster cat mouth to go inside and the girls are dressed up like crazy, they have all this pink fairy floss hair and these massive costumes. Inside they have all these different rooms like a teeth room, a mushroom room where we sat. There are mushrooms hanging over the tables, the table is a mushroom, there's a carousel in the middle with all these crazy cakes, the music's crazy. Its amazing, amazing! That's why I love Japan, there's no rules; you can be the strangest, weirdest you ever wanted to be and no one cares. I love it."
I felt like this was a wonderful place to end our interview. Tiarn and I spent another hour or so talking about our favourite places in the world and how blessed we are to have such beautiful lives. I'm so grateful to Tiarn for such a lovely evening of sharing stories and how revived I felt afterwards in terms of this project and writing. It's conversations like this, with people from all across the world, that inspire my curiosity and remind me why travelling is so enriching. I am so happy to be learning more about the people around me and what fuels them, as well as sharing their stories in the hope that they inspire more people to get out and see the world.
Thank you again to Tiarn for sharing her story and dreams with me, and thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and that you come back, I hope to have another story for you all soon.
Follow Tiarn:
Instagram
Follow A Small Allowance:
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
I met Tiarn through work, we've had a lot of changes to our team with the commencement of a new tourist season in Banff and thankfully we've got another amazing team. Tiarn works part time at Roots alongside her full time job and her presence is such a refreshing one. It was over the course of a steady closing shift last month that we began discussing travelling, our current home and our old ones, and when my determination was reignited to give more life to this project.
Tiarn is from South Australia but feels at odds with the mindset of her hometown, in pursuit of anything else she ventured across the Pacific and has found contentment within the landscape and populous of Banff. I wanted to explore her feelings for her paradise and get them down in writing which she courteously consented too. We settled ourselves down at Brew Pub on the evening of July 2nd, where we ordered beer and food, (surprising to the both of us after each of our Canada Day celebrations the day before) and thus commenced one of the most comfortable interviews I've conducted so far.
I already knew that Tiarn felt like a fish out of water back home, but I wanted a clearer picture of why that was. I started by asking what life was like for her back in Australia, "Boring, it's so boring *laughs* Everyone I know just wants to sit at home, save for a house, work 9-5, get married, have kids, just your standard, middle-class, shitty life. That's not what I want, I don't want to do that. I've travelled a little bit here and there, and I don't know why Canada was on my list but I knew I always wanted to move overseas. So I was like 'Fuck it, lets do Canada! Why not?'" To further prove the overwhelming number of people whose outlook is at odds with hers, she added "Everyone here [in Banff] is Australian, I've not met anyone I could potentially know because where I'm from everyone just stays at home. Literally no one leaves, it's the most boring place on earth."
Having alluded to travelling a little already, I asked if this was the first time Tiarn had lived abroad, "Yes. I've travelled before but I've never travelled by myself. I came here solo trip, was planning to stay here for six months, just doing a winter season learning how to snowboard, have a white Christmas, and as soon as I got to Banff I was like 'I'm staying'. I called my Mum and said 'I don't think I'll be home in April' and she was like 'What?!'"
Then she told me a story that came with a disclaimer; "This is going to make me sound like a terrible person, but I was in my cousin's wedding, as a bridesmaid, *giggles nervously*, the wedding was in April, I didn't go! I went to Florida instead! *laughs* She was fine with it, she was like 'I know how you want to live your life, you do you, it's fine'. She was the best person, she was such a sweetheart; I told her I was going to Florida instead and she was like 'Do it, it's fine, have so much fun for me!' and I'm like 'I don't deserve you!' *laughs* I still feel bad about it but I wouldn't change what I chose to do because when am I going to be able to do it again? And when we went it was with my whole house, I had lived there for a week. I was dying sick on the couch on Boxing Day, and one of my housemates was in the kitchen and she says 'Tiarn do you want to come to Florida with us?' so I was like 'Yes.' *laughs* So we sat around the kitchen table organising it, and they said April and I said 'Yeah sure, no worries' and we just booked it, there and then! That was the craziest shit I've ever done; I would never have done that with three strangers I met literally a week ago, it was so crazy."
However crazy it seemed, and slightly against the original plan, it totally payed for Tiarn to be spontaneous; "We still had four months before we were going, but we all got along so well. Two of the girls were moving overseas, so one of them was Canadian but going over to New Zealand and one of them was Taiwanese but her visa had finished. So from Orlando airport we all caught three different flights; three of us flew back to Banff, one of us got on a flight to New Zealand, and the other one to Taiwan. It was the saddest day of my life! *laughs* That's why I would never take back going, even if I could go to Florida at a different time, I would have missed out on going with them, and it being a 'See you later' kind of thing."
Going from one parallel to another, half way across the world, I wanted to know if Tiarn found it hard adjusting to her new life here in Canada, "At the time I think I found it really hard, in hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but it did take me a month to find work. I arrived in winter, two months before Christmas and nothing was going. My original plan was to move to Whistler but I didn't like it so I moved to Banff, I just caught a bus. I've done so much stuff that I never would have dreamed of doing. I'm a planner, and this time round I'm just winging everything. I'm stressed but I'm also having the time of my life!" I know exactly what Tiarn meant by this; there is such a strange definition of normal life here and the things that would usually stress out any functioning individual, don't seem to phase a single one of us. Bizarre living situations, barely surviving between our paycheques and spontaneous adventures to anywhere are as much a normal part of our lives as are eating and sleeping. It's unusually comfortable to us, and completely part of the magic, "It was very up and down, but I'd do it again, again and again and I will, I will do it again."
Having lived in Canada for a considerable while now, a similar amount of time to myself, I asked Tiarn what was her highlight so far; "That's a tough one, because everything, the whole experience in general has just been so uplifting and amazing. I don't know, I mean back home I have a lot of anxiety and stuff, being here I've hardly had any, I've got none. Maybe I'll have a stressful day here or there, I might get a little bit [stressed] but it's not all the time, it's not something I have to think about. That's probably the best part of it all; that mentally I'm perfectly fine." This was something that I could whole-heartedly relate to. When I was at home last year, working solely towards my goal of getting here, my mental health took a turn for the worse. There were a lot of factors that attributed to the state that my head was in, existential crisis' and the sorts, but since setting foot in this country and living the dream that I had dedicated a year of my life working towards, my anxieties and paranoia simply melted away and I was blissfully happy. My peace of mind is without a doubt one of the things I am most grateful for about this trip. Of course I feel as Tiarn does, there are so many wonderful aspects to life here that it's impossible to pick just one, "I don't have one thing, we'll go on a trip out, like when we went to Jasper the other week and the whole weekend we were like 'I can't believe this is our lives'. Even just a day trip to Moraine Lake it's like 'Pinch me'. You just feel so elated to be doing what we're doing. I appreciate life so much more being here, I love it."
We both attributed a big part of why we feel so content here to the mindset that all of us transient workers in Banff have; we're all here to have adventures and enjoy the mountains. We're all outgoing and it makes getting on with everyone you meet so easy. "Life is great here, and it helps that everyone's in the same position. No matter who you meet here, you're going to get on with them unless they're a shitty person. When I'm back home I'm the odd one out, everything I want is so different to what everyone else wants. I don't have anyone to talk to about the things I want to do. Everyone's like 'You don't want kids? you don't want to settle down? you don't want to buy a house?' and I'm like 'No, not yet, not now'. I would rather spend that money on a trip round the world. I feel like there's this pressure to conform to what everyone else wants to do. Here it's like 'Fuck that!'. Most of my group don't want kids and we can talk about that and no ones like, 'Your life is practically over if you don't have kids' but your life is over if you DO have kids! I love that everyone here is on the same page, I think that's what makes everything feel better about being here rather than back at home."
Now she's found somewhere she feels more at home and in touch with the people around her, I asked Tiarn what she had learnt about herself while she had been here, "I feel like I'm able to do so much more than I ever thought I could do. I've always doubted myself, like super self-conscious, social anxiety, and now I'm here with someone who wants to interview me about myself, I met a girl I chatted to online the other day in Japanese. I'm pretty much happy to talk to whoever, whenever. It's definitely helped me for the better, to be able to chat to people, be more open. I'm able to do so much more than I ever thought and it makes me feel so good." It's always so inspiring to see people blossom and own their lives, to be doing what they love and see them shine for it, good for you Tiarn.
We had inadvertently touched upon the subject of the our fellow travellers already, but I wondered what direct impact Tiarn felt they had impressed upon her, "I just admire so many people; its just so different to back home because everyone's living that mundane, 9 to 5 life, whereas here, everyone's so different. Even if they're just passing through, here for a night and they're on their way to their next location, literally have pennies in their account but they're doing what they love. It's the craziest shit, some of it I could never do, but I admire so many people for doing whatever they're doing. Living your best life doesn't necessarily mean having a house or having kids, I'm really against it, have you seen that running theme? *laughs* Living your best life is living what's best for you, and everyone's so different so I love hearing everyone's stories."
Now she knows she's capable of anything, I wanted to know what Tiarn had planned next and how long she would stay in Canada, "I'm leaving in August; I'll go home for a year and then me and a friend are planning on travelling round Asia for a year or two. So when I get home I have to figure out all the visas for that, because I want to try work in both Japan and China, I'd love to work in Korea as well. That's the only thing that makes going home seem less daunting, I have a reason, a goal. I just have to go home, figure it out and save some money. I think a year will be enough time to see everyone and then I'll be like 'I'm out again.'"
We had spoken prior to the interview and throughout its duration in a few tangents away from my questions about Tiarn's interest in Asia, but I did not know the source of it. I had to ask where it came from: "I've been to Japan before, and the first time I went I was like 'I need to do it, I need to do something here. I want to stay here for a long period of time.' I'd always wanted to do a snow season somewhere, but Canada was top of my list, so I thought I'd do Canada and then Japan. I've been to Japan twice now and I just love it; the people are so kind, it's just an amazing place. You have temples and all that historical, traditional kind of stuff, but then you go to the city and it's absolutely whack. I went to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, and you walk into this giant, monster cat mouth to go inside and the girls are dressed up like crazy, they have all this pink fairy floss hair and these massive costumes. Inside they have all these different rooms like a teeth room, a mushroom room where we sat. There are mushrooms hanging over the tables, the table is a mushroom, there's a carousel in the middle with all these crazy cakes, the music's crazy. Its amazing, amazing! That's why I love Japan, there's no rules; you can be the strangest, weirdest you ever wanted to be and no one cares. I love it."
I felt like this was a wonderful place to end our interview. Tiarn and I spent another hour or so talking about our favourite places in the world and how blessed we are to have such beautiful lives. I'm so grateful to Tiarn for such a lovely evening of sharing stories and how revived I felt afterwards in terms of this project and writing. It's conversations like this, with people from all across the world, that inspire my curiosity and remind me why travelling is so enriching. I am so happy to be learning more about the people around me and what fuels them, as well as sharing their stories in the hope that they inspire more people to get out and see the world.
Thank you again to Tiarn for sharing her story and dreams with me, and thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and that you come back, I hope to have another story for you all soon.
Follow Tiarn:
Follow A Small Allowance:
Comments
Post a Comment