Quite often, people are stunned when I tell them I voluntarily moved from a major Canadian city to a town of less than 3,500 people in the Canadian Arctic. And they are even more puzzled when they realize I moved from a major Canadian city (the nation’s capital, no less) of my own accord.

At first, I came north for a job. Plain and simple. I wanted to get into journalism or even a nice communications job, but wasn’t having any luck. When I came across a posting for a journalist at a small newspaper in a small town in the Northwest Territories, I figured I had nothing to lose.

I got that job. And the rest, as they say, is history. And for the last 20 years now, I have been bouncing back and forth between Ottawa and the NWT.

And these days, I’m hoping I don’t have to go back to Ottawa (or anywhere else in southern Canada, for that matter) any time soon.

I’m not even sure I can find the words to explain why I love it so much up here. It’s the people. The pace of life. The fact I seem to be more comfortable in my own skin here. The friends I have made up here will be my friends for life – regardless of how much time passes between the times we see each other. Last summer, I went to a friend’s wedding in British Columbia and was going to be reunited with some of my friends from here I hadn’t seen in 12 years.

You wouldn’t have thought 12 seconds had passed…

As odd as it may sound, I think I’ve found my place. In a tiny little town that takes at least a full day to get to any part of southern Canada (and two days for me to get back to Ottawa to visit my family). In a place only my mother has come to see me. In a place where a plane ticket out – even just to Yellowknife – is considerably more than a trip from a major Canadian city to Europe.

I’m not even kidding. It’s kind of ridiculous.

For those who have never visited the NWT, many still think of it as a place of isolation, holding a romanticized view of the Canadian North, of northern lights and harsh wilderness. There is a bit of that – fantastic northern lights, for example – but it’s so much more than that. There is so much more to love.

I can’t even put it into words. I really can’t. The photo at the top of this post was taken from my front door. Seriously. This is what I see on a daily basis. Not always covered in snow mind you, but a variant of this same image.

People wonder why I live here. I want some of them to travel here and visit and see for themselves. They’d totally get it.

Because that picture is only one view of things…