I Heart You Toronto... Monday, March 21

As I stood up to let an older lady take my seat on the subway, we smiled at each other.  She said a simple thank you and I responded by nodding my head and standing up for the rest of my commute.

I stood there by a pair of the subway doors, looking at my fellow subway goers and wondered if they knew how privilaged they are to be here in this big, beautiful city.  A city where you can be any colour, from any background, speak any language, and yet still find a spot to be accepted.  Being white in Korea often got me discriminated against as did being a pro female boxer, having a half shaved head, and sporting tattoos.  But this is Toronto.  This city is fabulous and it took me to be away from it for 11 years to really fall in love with it and learn to appreciate all it has to offer. 

Today Toronto offered me an amazing path to run on -- the Don River Trail that apparently is now called the Pan Am Trail.  I had visited Toronto in the summer but wasn't here when the Pan Am Games were on but there I was, standing there today on the Pan Am Trail.  When I saw it written across the path I took a picture of it.  In my head I envisioned all the athletes out here running the path, anticipating their particular competition and getting excited about the potential of it all.  I could feel their spirit around me as I ran so I ran and ran...and kept on running.  I could see the CN Tower hovering over the city in the background so I made that my finishing target.

I used to hate the CN Tower when I lived here.  I always considered it a tacky tourist thing that us locals never associated with because it was overhyped and over priced.  Now that I'm back though, it's like a beakon for me, telling me that this is home, my real home.  In Korea we have a similar tower, Seoul N Tower, but it isn't as tall or as elaborate as the CN Tower.  The N in Seoul N Tower stands for North but I used to joke that it stood for "Not-Good-Enough", as in Seoul's tower is not good enough for me.  The CN Tower is where it's at. You just can't compete with the CN Tower because you can't compete with Toronto.

Sometimes I wonder why the heck I ever left this city.