WRITE THE WORLD REVIEW ARCHIVE

It is not pleasant to be torn between two worlds you love.

I know what it feels like.

As I wandered the tundra a wistful feeling sparked inside, burning a hole in my heart. This wouldn't last forever.

So why was it creeping into me?

The mountains were quietly demanding I see what was past them. I knew what was past them. More mountains I had never seen. And I wanted them. It seemed unfair that they were waiting for me so long.

At nighttime, when the northern lights twisted, they grasped my imagination and moulded it into something bigger and wilder than it was before. There was something special about them.

My eyes flicked to the sea. It was emboldened with a touch of sun glinting over the waves.

If only it hadn't captivated me.

Nunavut would be hard to leave behind.

But Nova Scotia was waiting for us to come back someday.

One night when the northern lights softly lashed out into the dark sky, a decision clicked into place inside of me.

Standing in my bedroom, I shivered gloriously.

There were few people who got to experience this. I had to make the most of this life.

So every chance I got, I stepped into the waves and overflowed my boots in the Arctic Ocean.

I made friends with the sky and searched for polar bears on the horizon. I went on so many adventures, some simply by studying the view from my bedroom.

I collected little glimpses of the north to hoard away for the future, like treasure.

The night before we left, I put on my big, bulky winter coat and stepped quietly onto the back deck with binoculars in hand. I lifted them to my eyes and scanned the frigid water. Between the chunks of ice was swimming a polar bear.

I smiled. The bear had been silently paddling around every night for a week now. It was a completely normal sight, and nobody was amazed over it anymore.

But I still found a bit of magic and comfort in being alone with it, out in the cold. The sky above was so black it lent the colour to everything around it, and the mountains peacefully towered around me and the bear. A faint outline of the peaks stood out, and stars peered down upon me.