We Did It, We Moved to Canada
By: Maria Tolliver
Tags: Personal Development, Toronto, Faith, Relationships, Marriage

And No, it wasn’t because of Trump.

Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash

A year after getting married we left the country and made Toronto our new home. Moving was inevitable. Not because of Trump although I wouldn’t blame anyone if that was their reason. The urge to experience the quality of life we wanted was too heavy on our hearts, we became obsessed with it. My husband, a Cleveland native, has family all over the world so he had already been accustomed to traveling. Whether he was visiting family in Jamaica, Toronto, or New York, just to name a few, he had these worldly experiences throughout his life. As for this Cleveland girl, I’ve been to a few places here and there. I had my share of road trips like everybody else in their twenties but, I had never really been anywhere that most people haven’t.

So, 5 years into our relationship, we started entertaining the thought of moving away from Ohio, really, away from the Midwest in general. New York came up but it was too expensive, we love Cali but too far and expensive, of course, Atlanta came up but, too crowded. We might look into these places later on down the line but at the moment, the only medium we could find was Toronto. It was safe, close, cheap, and had the big city living we were looking for — it just happened to be in another country. There were so many reasons why we chose Toronto but let me elaborate further.

Coming from Cleveland, safety was one of our main priorities. We wanted to live in a place where we didn’t always have to watch our back. Sure, there are other places in the states that offer that but trust me, Toronto is much safer. Secondly, we wanted the big city life. Living somewhere that was walkable with cool amenities and subway access was high on our list. Yes, big cities like New York have this but it’s not as safe and farther away. The next priority was obviously cost. The cost of living in Toronto is high but not if you are getting paid in US dollars. For example, right now $100 in US dollars equates $133. The rate fluctuates but that’s still not bad considering all our income is mostly in US dollars. Lastly, Toronto is close to Cleveland only about 4 hours to be exact.

This was one of the main reasons we chose to move here because it was close enough to home to visit but far enough to not have to deal with the drama of being home. Also, we’re no strangers to this place we’ve made the best memories here. Whether we were going to Caribana an annual Caribbean festival held in Toronto every year, a random group road trip, or celebrating a birthday, I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been here. It’s crazy how something can be so close to home but yet it’s a completely different world, for that reason alone was enough to move. I remember on one of our weekend visits here, I dropped my head on my husband’s shoulder and said “ I love it here man. We couldn’t move here could we?” His response was the real reason our dream of moving to Toronto came true. “Why couldn’t we?” Ladies, Fellas, please find you someone who looks at life from this perspective.

Time passed, about 4 more years of speculation to be exact and it came time to make a decision. Were we going to be about this life or not? It seemed strange to a lot of people that we would choose to move to another country but, for us, it was the choice that made the most sense. It was the type of quality of life we felt that no other place could offer at the time. Plus, the constant rise in crime in Cleveland made the decision to leave even easier.

With that, we spent our days researching the legalities involved with being an American citizen relocating to Canada and found it was a lot easier than we thought. It’s even easier if you are a US citizen that lives within driving distance because legally, you’re able to live in Canada for up to 6 months and just drive across the border to reset the 6-month duration.

Our weekends involved road trips back and forth to Toronto apartment hunting so it was a rough one for a while. We eventually found a nice one-bedroom in the middle of a busy bustling town in Toronto so we were set, we’re doing this thing. We did all the necessary formalities to transition to work from home, rented our house out, had a going-away party, and said our goodbyes. The next day at 3 am we hit the road. All we had was our luggage and our cat in a cage.

When we arrived at the Canadian border, I was so nervous because we didn’t know what to expect. We had done as much research on this transition as possible but to be honest, some things had to be left up to chance; we truly did take a leap of faith. We were armed with our leasing papers as proof of residency, a prayer, and any other references we could get that would make getting across this border smooth as possible. Luckily, the immigration officials welcomed us with open arms, and strangely, not even a word about our cat!

It’s now 4 years later and wow, the experiences we’ve had here deserve another article in itself! I’m serious when I say that despite everything that is going on these days, we are the happiest we’ve ever been. This move has brought increased intimacy and happiness in our marriage as well. To all the couples out there, if you feel something heavy on your heart, don’t let it dissolve, God put it there for a reason.