Ask new Vancouverites why they decided to settle in Vancouver, and many of them will give you a logical answer; a worthy reason, as if their choice were a reasonable one – a job offer, relatives, studies, maybe even an interest in the West Coast.

At age 19, I came here from France by chance armed with an academic background gained in Ottawa, and with a vague idea of what to expect. The main thing was to keep travelling, discovering, and challenging my ideas. I have to admit that I did not know much about Vancouver, except that it was far away, pretty rainy and a great spot for skiing. And that the sushi was great, too. That was enough to convince me.

I started working as a translator, quite a logical step for a traveler with a passion for languages. Australians, Japanese, Russians, Germans, Chinese, Mexicans. I quickly realized how diverse Vancouver was. A run on the seawall, a walk in Stanley Park, a coffee in Gastown are enough to immerse oneself in dozens of languages, to imagine people’s conversations and their different stories and origins, or to pretend to be an interpreter. Vancouver, this small sample of the world, was inviting me to dive into its different aspects, its culture shocks and its multiple identities. I did not object and played the game.

Cosmopolitan Vancouver, unknown Vancouver, but more than anything else, unpredictable Vancouver.

Writer Coralie Tripier gets on the Canadian political bus. Photo by Kayla Casey, Flickr

One thing leading to another and quite unexpectedly, I ended up volunteering for the federal Liberal Party’s political campaign – me, a young French girl with no political experience. I had vaguely heard of the Conservatives and the Liberals, of a not-so-loved Mr. Harper and of some guy called Trudeau who looked like a pop star. I skimmed through the newspapers and filled in the gaps in order to help one of the candidates spread his message across the country.

The message was not the only one to travel: for six weeks, I crisscrossed the country on the campaign bus, with our team. Three or four cities per day, many conversations, little sleep, and more than 15,000 kilometers, an intensive program through all the provinces, from one ocean to the other.

Big political meetings in Newfoundland, some door-to-door in Calgary in -20˚C weather, interviews in Northern Ontario, meet-ups in Quebec. A surreal experience for a young French person recently arrived.

I was given a chance and I was trusted for my abilities – quite unusual these days. I wasn’t asked if my academic background was perfectly relevant to the duties I would be given, or if I had enough experience to be allowed to get experience. I was no longer just a resume, a few awkward lines summing up an experience too atypical to be summarized. I was a person like anyone else, and I was given a chance. Imagine my surprise.

The experience turned out to be an incredible one, but a tough one too, as is any incredible experience. More than the discovery of Canada’s political landscape and the 15,000-kilometres travelled, it gave me a global overview. An overview of the country, of the world, and of myself. A global overview that made me understand that you have to trust yourself and others, know when to get off the beaten path and appreciate the uncertainty of the future.

I still can’t say what brought me to Vancouver, but I know what Vancouver brought me – everything I did not expect. And that is the uniqueness of this city – its very essence.

If Vancouver happened randomly, in the end, everything happens for a reason.

Translated by Coralie Tripier