From Pulp To Paper

I left Toronto five weeks ago. 33 days to be exact. I could count the hours too, but that would be annoying. Having lived most of my life in the outer-Ottawa area, I thought I knew what to expect from the city when I moved there to attend Ryerson University. I expected the same things most people might expect from the city: smog, traffic, crowds, high-prices, a reliable city-run transportation system.

Most of those pre-conceptions were actually pretty accurate. I probably could have bought a house in Ottawa with the money I threw away on rent during my four year stay. But the most common thing I hear about Toronto is probably also the most untrue.

No matter what people might tell you, Torontonians are not smug.

I know most people might find that hard to believe. Torontonians must be smug. They live in an overpopulated, commercially ugly city yet still call it nice things like “diverse” and “world class”. The country’s news revolves around their boring celebrities. They are one of the most polluted cities in Canada yet their politicians continually strive for environmental protection measures. Not to mention, they root for a bad hockey team.

But honestly, the people are not smug. They are just evolutionarily dissimilar to most Canadians.
Human beings of all kinds, even ones from Toronto, have a unique ability to shape their surroundings to fit their immediate needs. There are the obvious historical examples of paved roads, roof tops and those funny looking umbrella hats.

But what happens when nature has been completely subdued and it is the created human-system that is unbearable? It means that a Torontonian’s publicly passive personality becomes part of their evolutionary attire. It’s protection. It’s a shell that keeps the emotionally stifling, disorderly public atmosphere from crushing their spirit.

Torontonians live in one of the busiest cities in the world. At all times of the day, in all parts of the city, things are moving. Things are happening.It’s the reason the sky is so bright at night and the air is so thick during the day. It’s also the reason people on the street blend into the background as part of the landscape.

It was a little troubling to eventually notice the change in myself. Getting off work, tired and irritable. Squeezing onto a subway crammed full of other tired and irritable people. You just learn to retreat within.

Of course, once you’ve left the overwhelming outdoors, you strip back down to your plain personality. But it’s usually this overcoat outlook that people encounter when they visit the city.

I believe that people in Canada are basically the same anywhere you go, at their core. While the pressures of big city life might have created an evolutionarily dissimilar breed of dwellers, deep down we are the same: self-serving, annoyed and conveniently generous.