Learning to Dream Again After the Storm

Richard Bailey Start Date: Jul 25, 2023 - End Date: Nov 24, 2023
  • British Columbia, Canada
  • Alberta, Canada

My Travel Story

by: Richard Bailey Start Date: Jul 25, 2023 - End Date: Nov 24, 2023
I took these pictures in 2010 while visiting Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island in BC, Canada. This was my very first time visiting BC. But almost 20 years before, in 1991, I had made the decision that I would one day call this Canadian province home. I made that decision based on information received about the province while visiting another province, Manitoba, on a youth exchange programme between my home country and Canada. My 2010 visit was just to confirm what I had been dreaming of all those years, while I waited on my Canadian permanent residence application to be processed.

But as so many of us know, life has a way of throwing us some serious curveballs sometimes... My dream of moving to BC, Canada never materialised. The processing of my permanent residence application was never completed, for reasons I'm still yet to find out. And, I would enter the most difficult period of existence imaginable - a period which has so far lasted just three months shy of a decade. It finally seems as if I am now emerging from this nightmare.

Because of the difficulties I have been experiencing, I have not been able to use my current Canadian visa since getting it some seven years ago... It would be a brand new dream coming through if you gave me the opportunity to use it before it expires in 8 months time. The pictures I would take this time around would include ones overlooking that famous breathtakingly beautiful lake scene in Banff, Alberta.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for any amount that you are able to give.
  • British Columbia, Canada
  • Alberta, Canada