Ville-Marie

Montreal — this city of youth and loneliness. Best experienced at 3am walking alone during snowfall. On first arrival, we leave what we know and relinquish ourselves to the island.

It's easy to become enveloped in its charm, easy to feel washed in highlights. But Montreal also wears us down, and often we sink into crevices and the cracks within ourselves, and don't know how to ask for help to climb out. Our tender hearts bruise quickly, and eventually we spread the carelessness we've experienced to others.

A wonder in the summer, a trap set in the winter. Desperately trying to connect and figure out our lives, clawing and running, clawing and running. Leaving starts as a detox, but eventually, your soul aches to be back.

The murals on walls. Gourmet tastes. Drums in the park. Mount Royal watching over your best and your worst moments. The empty streets. Old cobblestones. And the people who made this space between home and the rest of the world.

Montreal: not where we start, nor where we end up, but a flickering companion who showed us how to live.