Lesson Learned

It wasn’t until I went to Europe in the summer of 2005 that I realized I need to start paying more attention to Toronto.

Why is it that we go across the world to enjoy the pleasures of others’ cities without ever taking the time to enjoy our own?

Now I don’t mean to speak on behalf of all Torontonians, but I most certainly feel ashamed to say I’ve been up the Eiffel Tower, but never up CN’s. I have photos of the Trevi Fountain, the Louvre and Anne Frank House, but I can’t tell you what the statues at Queen and University are of, and I couldn’t point you in the direction of the Science Centre.

The whole time I was in Europe two summers ago all I did was complain about Toronto not having any history. To me the buildings I saw were so much more beautiful, so full drama, so praise-worthy.

Am I alone, or one of many, who take their surroundings for granted?

I’ve been trying recently to take the time to look up as I walk around downtown Toronto. If I’m waiting for a light to change or sitting with a friend for coffee the simple act of raising my head can be really eye-opening; you’d be surprised what you miss.

It wasn’t until I began doing research for this blog that I realized how utterly uneducated I was on the brilliance of Toronto. The website History of Toronto has made me completely embarrassed for myself.

I spent my second and third years of university living in Toronto at Jarvis and Gerrard and then up a block at Jarvis and Carlton. Little did I know there was history literally across the street from me.

I could see Jarvis Street Baptist Church from my balcony and not once did I ever wonder what it was all about.

On Bond St. (across from Ryerson’s Image Arts building) is St. George Greek Orthodox Church, a building I don’t even recognize when faced with a picture.

For two years I got my coffee at the Starbucks at Yonge and College not knowing I was in the historic I.O.O.F. Hall.

I drank at the Gladstone Hotel and took in frosh week at Old Fort York.

I walked to meet my best friend on Queen St. almost everyday, passing Old City Hall and Osgoode Hall, never once stopping to wonder what year they might have been built in.

How many times have I walked through the Eaton Centre never once seeing The Church of the Holy Trinity tucked away behind the entrance of Sears?

The University of Toronto is a history book incarnate and yet I wonder how many of its students know the magnitude of the people who laid those bricks for them.

My summer was spent eating Greek salads everyday at St. Lawrence Market not knowing that the lower level I was buying them from used to be a series of holding cells for criminals.

So maybe instead of planning my next trip to Europe I should invest some money in appreciating the history Toronto has to offer. I don’t know if it’s the Canadian mentality to look elsewhere for our culture, or the fact that we’re too quick-paced but I must say we (I) need to start paying more attention.

I’ve seen Versailles but never been to Ottawa, Prague but never out west. I can tell you what Amsterdam looks like at sunset but I’ve never stopped to watch it on Toronto’s lakefront.

So to Toronto and Canada I promise this: the next time a friend asks to meet for drinks at the Flatiron I’ll be sure to let them know what’s up. It may not be so much about the monuments themselves but the pride a person should have in their city. Enough pride to know about their surroundings. And enough pride to look up and see, maybe for the first time, the real city that contains them.