What If I Was Brave

Weeks before I graduated university, I was offered a job. The position would put me in Manhattan full-time and pay in the range of $80,000/year. For someone fresh out of school, that’s really good money, and living in New York city made it even more alluring.

But I turned it down. Without even a second thought, I turned it down. I’d been away from my daughter for the better part of four years by then and the thought of permanently relocating to another country and not being with her wasn’t an option for me.

It was a risk. I didn’t have anything lined up back home in Toronto. Plus 80k could’ve really gone a long way to establishing some financial security early on in my career. But my priorities were different. My priority was different.

When my girlfriend was about five months pregnant with my daughter, she had no place to live. She got into a dispute with the landlord and he wanted her out that month. Her pride kept her angry at first, but that anger quickly turned to fear when there were only seven days before the month was over and she still had nowhere to go.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, but she was 17 at the time. No one wanted to rent to a teenager, even if they were pregnant.

Even though I was spending most of my time at her place, I still lived with my mother. But when I saw garbage bags filled…