BREAKING: Canalien Kids Defy Science

February 18, 2016

BREAKING: Canalien Kids Defy Science

Long Distance is hard. Like most other couples amidst young love today, finding out that my main man, my other half, Koy would be moving to a different country was like the Earth had spun off its axis. You never think it will happen to you, you know, and then you realise it really can happen to anyone. You're all: 'But we're the dream- this can't be happening.' 'The heart and the growth and the fondness, it's too much' 'Why geogrraphy, why??' 'Oh shoot I must have done something in a past life.' 'Why us? Why ME?' ..Some of these may or may not be direct quotes from my reaction to the LD news just three years ago. Today however, I look back as a fearless survivor, more level-headed. I'm able to think more rationally and consider things like, my elders from just a few generations back who had to send their loved ones off to WAR .. with only a pencil and paper.* 

An aside: My great-great grandfather and his son, my great-grandfather both lost their left ams in the wars while fighting for Canada (how spooky is that)... Luckily they were both right handed so they could write home and keep in touch with my future great-great and great grandma. Now there's a romantic tale.

...But instead now we fast-forward to me, a offshoot of their efforts; full-bodied, armed with a Macbook and an iPhone, living in a peaceful country (thanks for that btw!) and complaining about my boyfriend leaving for a dreamy remote island in the West Indies to study medicine... And with access to things like Skype and Facetime -which in my mind are essentially forms of time travel/teleportation/sorcery- this *tech*nically should be childsplay! 

So, to recap: Koy went off to war school in the Caribbean and left me with only my faith and memories this awesome af video for me to play in between sporadic snail mail to let me know he was alive scheduled Skype sessions.

How did I not realise how easy we have it? I mean, are we ever really apart, or alone? ...It is 100% the truth that the first time Koy and I had to separate, it was for 3 weeks and I made him a feature length goodbye video (We can leave that one in the vault for now). Only three weeks... wow. I'm surprised he ever returned at all. #stage5.

Of course, this time around it was more difficult with him moving to a different country for a couple of years ..but it did also allow us to better build and focus on our own lives. I took the opportunity to move to the SouthEastern US, take classes and start Canalien & Co! I shaped my life and grew a lot as my own person. I learnt how to prioritize and now I only make feature film good-bye videos for trips he's on for 1 month or longer.

Needless to say, after 2.5 years, 12173923 FaceTimes, 10 Caribbean rendezvous, 28 sad good-byes and 28 rejoicing hellos we're still here. Back living in Canada together having most likely defied some modern scientific relationship theory, and with some incredible experiences from those years 'apart' now under our belt.

While celebrating Vday, the Veeds last weekend, I reflected on those past few years. And especially now with what I'm doing with Canalien & Co., promoting the Canadian-Alien lifestlye, I wanted to share this video. It was made in 2013- pre-snapchat, pre-Canalien, just for fun- and probably influenced most of Jay Alvarrez's work to date. A modern day correspondence of the love; Koy compiled highlights from our travels that last summer together and left the video for me to find at home on the day he moved away. #classicmaneuver. Clips are from Toronto, Muskoka, Chicago and around Western Europe. I watched it whenever I missed him or when I want a reminder of how sweet life is.

If you take away anything today, I hope it is an appreciation if not for love knowing no bounds, then for the overzealous Scottish boy next to us at the Avicii concert we went to in Glasgow at the end of this video.

 Thanks for reading! If your loved ones are accessible, go squeeze them :)

Cheers, to the Canalien Life.

TPL,

Sydney

... 

Today's Tangents:

*I'm not even sure if they had portable pens back then tbh. I actually went to look it up and found a Brief History of the Pen here (although it says invented in 1888 I also read that they weren't available to the public until 1930s. Thus the mystery shall remain inconclusive)**

**Also how cool is that, I was just able to google that and get some answers... Our great-grandparents would have had to trek to the library uphill both ways and read some kind of pen book to figure that out. Life, amirite? 

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