Natasha Zarin.

This a brief message to let anyone who's been reading that I am still alive.
I found a bank today, so that's one worry taken care of.

Today I did some training with a girl from Vancouver that lives a few towns away.
I found out a few days ago from looking at her "teacher profile" that she writes poetry.
Today when I mentioned it to her the look on her face that she gave me explained physically before she vocally could that she hasn't been writing for a while.
She asked me if I write, I told her that I try.
She asked me how I got into it, I told her that my interest was peaked by Shane Koyczan and my inspiration was formed from Carly Saare.

It turns out she is quite the fan of Shane Koyczan, but has seen him perform only once, to her understandable regret.
We talked for a while about that lovable poet, and I shared some of my stories collected from my friendship with him, up to and including that wonderful night when he and several others took it upon themselves to wrap my car in 150 metres of cellophane, complete with a bacon-y surprise inside.
She is heading back to Vancouver in September, so we have a little bit of time yet to become better friends.

Tonight she told me quite a few things I needed to hear, including her experiences and first impressions of this country
She reminded me that although it doesn't seem this way in this society, I do in fact hold much more liberty than I first felt I did, and that my choices are still my choices.
She told me not to feel trapped, because although I have a few things set in paper, they're still not set in stone.
She told me that she feels my appearance in this city was not accidental, and although we're sure we've seen each other somewhere before, she told me that my appearance was an inspiration to her, and that after a day of getting to know each other, she finally feels the pull she was looking for to begin writing once again.

I don't know why she found that in me, but all I can say is that I too have been inspired to pick my pen back up.