It was when I sat down that I started to feel that it was overwhelming and after many seconds I began feeling like it was over. It was over, and I could eventually sit myself down on a dust-covered couch in my new condo and breathe. Breathing in the fresh air of the unfamiliar, strange city, and out every bit and piece that I somehow decided to leave behind. Friends and family, my lying friends and my unloving family, I was told by them that moving out to another city in another country on another continent was correct, was incorrect, was somewhere between correct and incorrect, “depends on the situation”, and was a “delicate intricacy of balance” uniting the “right” and the “wrong”.

It was not as easy to determine whether one of your own life choices was correct or incorrect as pointing a meddling finger into someone else’s life, picking a stance, and stating your opinions so freely as if it ...

In the early morning of my city, where the doves slid through the open air and the leaves whisper an emerald shade of green, thirty-two bronze chess pieces, respectively coloured and meticulously crafted, sat uniformly at daggers drawn. The mild, lustrous metal was still cold from the brisk, thin air of April. I rotated the rose golden Knight to its post, solemn for war, and I put out my hand.
My respondent was an old man, whose hair turned silver in all the ages he'd laid eyes on. His hand was covered with wrinkles, veins bulged and formed a series of rolling hills, shaking mine firmly. Several pedestrians gathered around the small, stone table, and a few of them found themselves as commentators. Bronze gently knocked on the grey marble, and the battle began.
...

Homelessness in Vancouver is a huge issue that has yet been solved. Ever since 2024, over 2000 people have been recognized as homeless. Homelessness was not an issue for Vancouver until the 1980s. Prior to 1980, the increase in property value due to an economic shift affected many citizens negatively. The decline of industries also increased the unemployment among the working class. After the 1980s, homelessness has been more visible in Vancouver than ever since. Due to the shift from resource-based to service-oriented industries, many were left unemployed, increasing the risk of homelessness. During this time, housing prices sky-rocketed due to an increase in population and demand, leading to higher rates of homelessness. Leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, there was increased public discourse about homelessness. It has cleaned up the Downtown Eastside, and efforts of cleanup of other areas beside it...