A Danke Schön

By Johnny Nghiem

April 9^th, 2017

A friend once told me that it's who you surround yourself with that really helps explain you as a person to everyone. In turn, it helped me build who I am and even though I don't see many of my old friends anymore, I still remember.

I also still remember growing up with my only friends being my dog Charlie and my Nintendo.

When I left Canada three years ago, I used to wonder why I did it in the first place - I had a great job, the best friends, and living in a city I helped shape with each footstep I took since '84. However, like being home all the time, it's never a bad idea to go outside and smell the world.

I was always insecure with making difficult decisions (who isn't?) and needed (almost) an approval from friends to know I'm doing the right thing, but sometimes you just have to take what you know and do it on your own. Like my mother used to tell me all the time to help build my confidence, "I grew up fixing bikes and running from bombs at 10 years old, all you have to do is be a man."

Now that I'm on my own in an entirely new environment, I can safely say that because of all the above plus some unnecessaries, it's not so bad to be alone again. I have new curiosities and a hunger to explore and to really do me.

When I was in London for the first time about a month ago, I had always imagined as a child what it'd be like and it was everything I thought. I was re-living a dream that was all but lost until I set foot in a black cab and like that, boom, I was Johnny again. I still feel it.