“It’s better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all.’ 

I truly believe that love is important in our monotonous, passion-killing life. To make us understand the importance of emotions, warmth, the bliss of togetherness, the pain of loss and the power within to do things that seemed impossible before. 

Well, by now you must have understood that this one is a love story: my love story. But what it’s not is me falling in love with a man. This is a story about falling in love with a place. Yup! you read that right. I fell in love with a place. I must tell you it was love at first sight. Or (if I may take the liberty of saying it out loud) it was love at first flight! 

Vancouver (Canada) is beautiful. I mean the ocean, the mountains, the cherry blossoms, the snow and the sun- you find it all in Vibrant Vancouver! 

So, my love story began in Jan 2017, (Jan 23 to be precise) when I first visited my elder brother and sister-in-law in Vancouver. I was excited, fully pumped up for my first solo international trip. Even before landing, the aerial view got me all wonderstruck, my eyes wide open to just take it in all at once. It was a one month trip and every day of that month, this city gave me a new reason to stay a little longer. 

Leaving Vancouver to fly back home in Dehradun (India) was the last thing that I wanted to do. On my way back, all I could think was if only I could stay here forever.  But it seemed impossible. Nothing but an over- ambitious dream!

Three months passed by, with me floating in that black void of space. I knew I was not happy. All I did was sulk day in and day out. 

While I had given my heart away to Vancouver forever, my parents were vigorously focused on getting me married. Frankly, I had been dodging that ball for too long now.

I felt that life had lost all reasons to make me happy. Meanwhile, my folks had charted out the “purpose of my life”. Not only did they know the recipe of a perfect life, they also wrote it down clearly for me: 

Ingredient 1- Study at a good school and college

Ingredient 2- Get a suitable government job

Ingredient 3- Get married

Ingredients 4- Have kids.

And voila! You have successfully cooked a filling but completely tasteless meal.

But this just wasn’t me! I just couldn’t see myself eating tasteless food. My tongue itched for more. It was not my stomach, but my soul that was hungry. So, in June 2017, I filled out my application for Canadian Permanent Residency. But to my dismay, my parents were not okay with this new, “unconventional” and “risky plan”. And, not to forget, the “certain” category of people who add fuel to fire, would just put up questions like:

“Will you seriously quit a Government job?”

“Are you even aware how insanely difficult it is to get a job these days, let alone a government job”  

“Girl, this is not your age to move around countries, it is high time you get married!” , 

Empty and meaningless as they may have been, these words were enough to make me stop working towards my dream. As time passed I lost all my patience, my calm, my interests and everything else. I felt tired and broken. I was living the dream of the people around me instead of my own. 

Just like that, it was 2018, and I was the same: almost dead inside and completely dull outside. My brother and sister-in-law visited around this time and they realised how desperately I needed to move away from this situation. Like angels in disguise, they intervened with a short one to one with my parents. They asked me to lay out things more clearly and assure them that I was pretty serious. 

Just a little note here: if you have your elder siblings backing you up, be sure you are going to make it through the worst. 

My parents finally gave me a green signal and I filled the application that I had left incomplete. This, however, was just half the battle won. There was more to come – forms, exams , documents , the struggle to reach the required CRS score. That is a story for another day. All I can tell you right now is that, fortunately, I made it through. I made possible what seemed unachievable for a long time.

I landed as a Permanent Resident in Vancouver on June 8^th 2019 , and I knew I belonged here and that this was my calling, at least for now. I had no idea what would come next- Do I even have a plan? How will I make money to survive? Will I find a decent enough job?

But for the first time in my life, I was not scared that I had no plan. I was actually free to do whatever I wanted to do, to try new things, do things that make me happy.

Now, to reiterate, this story is actually not only about falling in love with a place, but falling in love with myself. Doing things for myself (not in a selfish way!) . I love myself, totally!

So, when you feel everything is lost, my dear friend it’s not. Hardships may burn you but just rise from the ashes, like a phoenix. Remember, “Per aspera ad astra: Through hardships to the stars”.

Straight from the diary of

Diksha Dasauni, 28, has been happily residing in Vancouver, Canada, since the last 9 months. Currently, she is working for a wealth management company. When not crunching numbers, Diksha likes to pen down her thoughts, read a novel or dance with the crew. While she is open to everything in life, one thing she doesn’t want to do is regret anything.