Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport
Have you lived on an Island, or on several islands? For what percentage of your life? Were there any aspects of being on an Island that affected your psychology or had a noticeable effect on your mobility?
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I've lived in Newfoundland from 1981-1999, 2003-2005, and 2012-present.
I think being an island is a significant part of the reason Newfoundland's identity exists, and to the strength that it does. So, in that regard, it definitely has a significant impact on my psyche.
But considering only individual traits, not cultural ones, I don't think it has had a tremendous impact.
I'm oddly excited by land borders - they always fascinate me; where they are, why they're there, etc.
I never did get used to the idea of easy travel to another urban centre. I always set aside too much time, packed too much, etc. And I never got used to the idea that there could be something happening somewhere else nearby. When I lived in Kenora, I never went to Winnipeg for anything, even though it was only a couple of hours away. It just never occurred to me that this was a thing I could do - drive into a nearby city and do things, go to events, whatever. On an island, especially one as isolated as ours, I'm used to living in our own Moscow, or Stockholm, or whatever else you like. I'm not used to there being other options, and certainly not
more or better options, elsewhere but within easy reach. The whole driving out for a quick visit to cottage country/wilderness thing exists here, that I'm very used to, but not to another urban centre.
It took me a long time in Winnipeg to make really basic adjustments to diversity that I imagine come pretty easily for people raised in less homogeneous societies. None of them were related to tolerance or acceptance or anything, all of that is fine, but just things like... hearing a name like Kowalchuk or Zienkiewicz and having absolutely no idea what people were even saying, and certainly no idea how to even begin to spell names like that. It was just... sounds. I saw nothing in my mind's eye but mashed potatoes.
And things tend to be shorter on islands. It was really hard to go from being able to see over most people's heads in a crowd to being the height of an average man's shoulder. It almost gave me a complex, going from a relatively imposing figure to "OMG, adorbs!".