Back From My Convention in Toronto, Ontario

Last Updated on May 29, 2021

Last week, I traveled to Toronto, Ontario for a convention. We celebrated 100 years of Kiwanis (a community service organization) existing in Canada. Normally I publish a post before I go anywhere without Wi-Fi for any period of time but this summer (as a whole) has been action packed for reasons that I will explain in another post.

The Metro Toronto Convention Center

Although I have been to Toronto several times before, I feel like this trip showed me a different side of the city. First of all, it was my first time traveling to Canada without my family. I travelled with one of my best friends who I met at Leadership Academy in Indiana last summer. We flew with a somewhat sketchy airline company called Porter that I had never heard of until this trip.

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The plane literally had propellers… I’ve never been on a plane without jets before. Flying like that was an experience on its own. The flight was not bad aside from the bumpier-than-average landing. Thank goodness the wings had wheels to stop it from tipping over. The flight was short enough that I was mostly able to ignore my anxiety.

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Don’t get me wrong, Porter was great. While waiting for the plane, they had a lounge with complementary cookies and drinks! Once we got onto the plane, they served refreshments in glasses. Not even in plastic/paper cups like most major airlines do. I have to say, I was definitely impressed with their service.

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In the city, most of my time was consumed by the convention I was attending. During the first day, we volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. It wasn’t easy but with my group, we definitely helped the two guys who were running the Habitat ReStore (where disadvantaged families can buy discounted items for their homes.) Most of our time was spent moving items back and forth, loading heavy furniture into cars, cleaning, and labelling new inventory with prices.

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During our down time, I caught up with some of my old friends from other International events and got to meet a few new people as well. I really treasure the time I have at these conventions because unlike with friends from school or work, there is absolutely no guaranteed way to know if/when I’ll ever see these people again. Every second counts. I did my best to embrace every minute of it. Even though it did result in me barely getting any sleep all week. But that’s ok. Really, I have no regrets.

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On my second day in Toronto, I got to see the CN Tower. It felt surprisingly similar my visit this time last summer to the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China. The view was beautiful! I did notice that unlike the Pearl Tower, the CN Tower’s view didn’t really go 360 degrees around because a large section of the floor was dedicated to a restaurant. However, the section we were freely allowed to explore did have a very nice view.

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I really had a great time in Canada. I loved seeing my friends again. The Canadians I interacted with were so incredibly friend. So pleasant! And their fashion in Toronto is top notch! What a great city to be in. I hope I can go back again one day to explore the city some more and to do some more sight seeing.

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I actually ended up leaving the convention a day early because I decided this year I would finally attend New York City’s Pride Parade for the first time in my life. For the last few years, I have been away traveling during NYC Pride. The same thing would have happened this year unless I sacrificed something.

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