All good things must come to an end...

Well, the time has come to pack our bags and say goodbye. After 3.5 years in Tuk, we've decided that it's time to move on and bring some new and different changes to our lives. An excellent opportunity presented itself in Edmonton, so between Thanksgiving and now we have bought a condo, I was offered a job, we went home for Christmas, we came back, packed up about 60 boxes, and in 3 days time I will be leaving the community that I have called home for the past 3.5 years. Deon will follow when he secures a job in Edmonton as well.

The goodbye process has been sad, but people have generally been very happy for us. The decision to leave was a difficult one, and I would argue that our goodbye has been harder than those of most "southerners" who live in the north. The majority of southerners come north for jobs that have specific terms, like the RCMP, nurses, or teachers. We, on the other hand, had indeterminate positions, and therefore could have stayed as long as we wanted... Therefore, our decision to leave was very much a choice, unlike many people who leave the north.

However, the choice to leave was not about not liking our jobs, our home, or our fellow community members. Just as any northerner living in the south would feel after a certain amount of time, we felt that it was time to be closer to our families and to settle down by buying a home. We will absolutely miss our friends here in Tuk and across the settlement area... It's been a tough week calling my friends and co-workers across the region to let them know that I'll soon be leaving my job. All of them have had nothing but kind words and well wishes to offer.

Luckily, our new home is Edmonton, which is "the gateway to the north." We hope to maintain our friendships and relationships based on the fact that many northerners travel to Edmonton for vacation, medical attention, or meetings. We've let them know that our door is always open, just as their doors have been open to us during our time here. Words such as "You're always welcome back home to Tuk" have been expressed to us, which means a lot.

My time here has been the best 3.5 years of my life thus far, and I will always carry fond memories with me. I will miss having 4 days off work in one week due to a blizzard. I will miss going to the store and being able to say hello to everyone that I see. I will miss (as much as I complain about it) the midnight sun. I will miss when one of the elders calls me "my busiest." I will miss Eskimo donuts, ukpiks, bannock, and macaroni salad with SPAM in it. I will miss spending hours fishing, watching the tide go out and then come back in again. I will miss that when someone needs a cake in town, that I'm their go-to person. I will miss my literal 30 second commute to work. I will miss being Queen of Tuk, and having people greet me with "Hi Queen!" I will miss walking home from Kitti Hall while watching the northern lights, or watching them from a plane flying over the Arctic Ocean, or watching them dance from the porch at 2am. I will miss the job that I dreamed of having since I discovered it during my graduate research.

For good measure, a few things I won't miss:
-Flying on bush planes sometimes 6 or 8 times/month
-Running out of water and being at the mercy of the water-truck or mother nature
-Having to boost the truck daily when the temperature is below -50C
-The temperature being below -50C
-Being swarmed by almost-literally a million mosquitoes in July, and finding them inside my bug jacket
-Spring fog, fall fog, and ice fog that ruin my travel plans
-Craving a certain recipe and finding that the store has none of the ingredients

Another post to follow about the ordeal of trying to move during a 6 day blizzard, a closed ice road, and then another blizzard.
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