In 1993, I immigrated to Canada from Brazil with my family searching for a better life and security. I went to high school and college here. While I was at Mohawk College, I got a co-op job in the City of Timmins. By that time, I did not know where Timmins was; the only thing I thought I knew was that it shouldn’t be too far away from Hamilton. Well, after I searched for it on Google map, I found out that it is actually 10 hours away from my hometown; I almost fainted. However, I had already accepted the offer and I had to go to the City of Timmins.
After 9 hours of driving and one $300 speeding ticket, I’d finally reached the City of Timmins. On the first day, I took a very good look at it. The City of Timmins is a small city with about 50,000 people. Up here, it is colder than Hamilton and I was wondering why people live here anyway; it is far away from everything else.
After one month, I found out some nice things about Timmins. It has nice, clean air, some awesome outdoor activities such as biking, fishing and playing badminton. Not to mention, I caught the biggest fish in my life over here.
Even though I was only a co-op student, the people of Timmins treated me very nicely, which gave a feeling of being at home to a total stranger like me. With -40 degree winter weather, I still felt warm inside; that is how warm people in Timmins are. Well, of course, my brand new Columbia Titanium 3-in-one jacket kept me warm too.
I came back as a full-time employee of the City of Timmins. Hopefully one day, Timmins will be my hometown !