Every time I’d think about this post and how we decided to either stay in Arizona or move back to Canada I’d get this song all up in my head, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by English rock band, The Clash. Granted, they’re singing about divorce and we’re talking about moving, but you get the idea.
Go on and press Play so that you can sing along too! ☺
In the beginning
So when I first started my story I promised to be nothing less than completely open and honest with you, and I’ll be nothing short of that here. It was a really big decision to uproot ourselves from the home and community we’d grown with, raised our boys in, and loved for nearly 21 years, and it was HARD!
Granted, none of this has been easy but looking back I think probably one of the hardest things about all of it was just deciding what to do, and then putting that proverbial stake in the ground. It was a big deal (to us, anyways), and it was just craziness that we were even considering moving back to Canada when we’d always said we never would.
There are days that I’ll catch myself (or we catch ourselves) wondering what the heck we did, and how we even got get here because honestly, we’re still pretty unsettled (the housing market here in BC is off the charts – another post to follow on that).
That’s not to say we made the wrong choice. Before the pandemic the thought about selling and leaving seriously never even crossed our minds – we were comfortable, and happy where we were. Covid, however, and its effects on our life changed all that.
When I was consulting and travelling North America every week there were more times than not that I’d wake up and freak out for a second, not knowing where I was or which city I was in (it sucked when I was actually in my own bed when that happened! Any Road Warriors out there that can relate?!). I know I’ve done that here too – probably dreaming I’m in my bedroom in Mesa then realize I’m not, we’re in yet another rental in BC with another move on the horizon.
By now I guess it was around May/June of 2020. The pandemic was raging worldwide and it was becoming pretty clear that it wasn’t going away anytime soon. Everything but essential services were closed, gyms were closed (UGH!!), restaurants were closed except for maybe takeout, and those that could, were sent home to work, along with all their spouses and family and littles all home doing their things too. Oy vey.
Life was just getting totally weird. Wasn’t it? I mean as a country we ran out of toilet paper. WTF?
We were in a quandary and just didn’t know what to do. As we walked circles around the neighborhood on those hot, late nights we had to start throwing around some pros and cons to both staying in Arizona or leaving to try and get a bit of perspective. Tailgating at one of our favourite hangouts having a bite to eat (as indoor dining was closed), we’d toss it all around some more.
It’s one thing if you’re ready and have wanted to move away for a long time, but that wasn’t us, at all.
Anyways, enough of my drivel, sorry about that 
Everyone will have their own, personal reasons for staying where you are or, coming back across the border. I’ll share with you some of the things we tossed around when we were trying to figure out what to do. If you haven’t decided yet whether to stay where you are or come on back to The Great White North, maybe some of our thoughts will help you out
Staying in Arizona
Pros
- Arizona (for us) is absolutely fabulous weather!
- Winters are mild and there’s rarely a night below freezing (although the summers have increasingly becoming hotter and longer over the last few years)
- No snow, no icy roads, no scraping windshields or toques or mitts or none of that
- If you’re into storms, Phoenix gets some pretty wicked monsoon storms (Haboobs!) for just a few weeks in the summertime ☺
- Cost of living was decent and affordable
- Arizona was always a really inexpensive place to live (other than A/C!)
- Jeff had a good, steady job outdoors that he quite enjoyed (thankfully golf courses stayed open through the pandemic)
- We had a home, our home, and the same home of 21 years (with the pool and hot tub, fountains and ponds, palm trees and our very own citrus trees!) – we were very comfortable there
- We were blessed with 21 years of friends, neighbors, coworkers, gym family, shopping and all the rest – it was home
- Sooooo so many incredible memories made there!! (that we’ll always have
)
)Cons
- No doubt about it the summers are hot, and getting hotter and for longer every year it seems with the extreme heat now seeping into Spring and Fall
- Hotter, longer summers meant bigger, nastier electricity bills (our last one from that house was $666.94. For one month. Just for power.)
- There’s no walking the dogs or playing ball in the daytime in summer, it’s just too hot
- To stay in our home I’d have to go back to work in IT
- Our AirBnb was ‘out of business’ because of the pandemic, including the new business plan we had to host weddings
- With gyms closed my job as a Personal Trainer was also finished, who even knew how long so that left my income at zero
- We were far from family
- Our kids had moved to Washington state and weren’t coming back anytime soon, although we loved Arizona I think they were done with the heat
- Jeff’s mom, our brothers and their families are all on the Canadian side of the border
- Medical insurance in the United States is a thing
- We had none since I left my job in IT a couple years back, a bit unsettling to say the least should something catastrophic have happened
- Again, I’d need to step back into a professional role (to pay for the expensive medical + benefits that you get with your job lol…), or try and buy Obamacare or something like that. Hard to do with no income.
- Phoenix was the fastest growing big city in the US between 2010 and 2020 (according to the Census Bureau)
- Infrastructure and especially water supplies can’t keep up. The area has been in a drought for 20 years now with water reservoirs at historically low levels. Minimal snow melt and warmer conditions are contributing to the extremely low water levels from the Colorado river to Lakes Powell, Mead and others
- Political climate in the US is very volatile, racial tensions are really high, gun violence is out of control and the country just feels a bit um, on edge
Moving Back to Canada
Pros
- We’d be closer to family
- Even though the kids lived in Washington State, we’d be much closer to them living in BC rather than Arizona
- Being back in Canada, we’d be closer to our siblings and extended family
- Selling the house meant leaving Arizona debt free (we’d also be homeless for a while with our stuff either in a storage unit or moving truck)
- Overall cooler weather meant the dogs could get out to play almost any time of year; not the case in the Arizona heat
- The water crisis in the southern states is real and continues to get worse; Canada doesn’t have any water issues
- The political hostility in the US is high and moving back to Canada put us on sovereign soil (sadly, there was the odd encounter with folks that once they learned we were Permanent Residents and not US citizens, thought we had no right to be there and should go home)
- Canadian Kit-Kats .. and TimBits! 😊
Cons
- It’s cold! (okay, okay, it’s not cold all year just in winter)
- We’d be giving up our family home of 21 years (which was hard!) and would be homeless
- We’d be moving during a pandemic, in the middle of Canadian winter
- Because of that we couldn’t just go up to Canada, have a look around, find a place then go back to Arizona, pack up and move (which is what we did when we moved there)
- Jeff would be giving up a really good job
- Canada (especially BC) is expensive, at least compared to what we were used to in Arizona
- It was a lot to leave behind – all our friends and neighbors, our gym family and our comfort zone – it all weighed heavily in our hearts.
Making Our Decision
Pros and cons, cons and pros. What to do.
Again, had it not been for the pandemic, we wouldn’t be here telling our story. We had to consider all that was going on and then how it impacted us and our livelihood. When you’re considering making such a huge (and unplanned change), you have to sort out what is most important.
If the world kept spinning out of control, if things stayed weird and businesses and borders and all the rest stayed closed, if people kept getting sick and dying, what was most important and what do we do next?
The more we walked and the more we talked it started becoming pretty clear where logic was steering us. That’s not to say my heart wasn’t kicking and screaming and having an all out toddler temper tantrum because I wanted to stay!
We were incredibly blessed with all that we had in Arizona – we knew that. Yes, we worked hard for it all and nothing came easy which made it even harder to leave it all behind.
The decision was humbling. We enjoyed such a beautiful home for so many years, with the pool and hot tub, fruit trees and palm trees in our very own backyard oasis …yep, all that good stuff but in the midst of a worldwide crisis we were simply too far from family.
Moving back to Canada would put us on the side of the closed border where most of our family still lives. A move to maybe Vancouver Island or south/central British Columbia would put us much closer to our kids in Washington State than if we stayed in Arizona.
It was like blowing out a big, deep breath once we finally decided and had a path forward. We both knew we were leaving so much behind including a huge piece of our hearts. We also knew what the important pieces were once we decided, and family came first.
“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar”
– Raymond Lindquist