Lately I’ve been thinking about where I want to live when I’m older. Right now I’m 23 years old, but I sometimes try to imagine where I’ll be when I’m in my mid-thirties, for example. I’ll tell you what I see. I see a mostly wooden cottage in the woods up in northern Ontario, where I can look out over the deck and see a gorgeous lake; where I can hear the sound of loons in the morning. That is where I want to live. That’s my dream home.
I have no idea how I’m going to get there, but mark my words when I tell you I will. No matter what job I have to take or sacrifices I have to make (now I’m rapping, apparently), I’ll get there. Part of my dream vision is being a full-time writer, working on my books up north with my three dogs. But, you know, I can be flexible about that part.
The great thing about cottages sold up north is that they genuinely aren’t very expensive. There are many homes around my lame neighborhood that go for far more than the market price in a place like Haliburton Ontario. I suppose this is because there are few places to work up there, so they would only be sold as summer homes. But if I wrote for a living that would mean my job went with me wherever I go. I would not need to worry about driving to work. I could wake up every morning, write down by the dock with my laptop, then go to bed. That would be how I spent every day. But even if writing isn’t in the cards for me, I’ll just find some other job I can manage up north. Regardless of the way I get there, I’ll get there.
I’ve always been a cottage kid. My favourite place in the world is my grandmother’s cottage in Muskoka. We used to go up there every summer when I was young. Those were the best days of my life. Getting to live on a lake like that all-year-round would be the greatest blessing in the world. I’m immensely jealous of all the people who currently do so in Canada. I’ll need to find somebody who does so they can point me in the right direction in life to arrive where they did. I wouldn’t ask for anything more than a nice sizeable cottage, a big lake, and maybe a couple Akitas and Mastiff dogs. I’m a simple man.