Meet "Firas"

Firas is not a new friend that I'm meeting for the first time, but the last time I saw Firas was 8 years ago, when he left Leo Burnett Dubai, and after that he relocated to Cairo and then decided to move with his family to Canada..

And what a pleasure meeting Firas in Tornoto after almost 3 month of my landing, and hearing the story of the journey they went through and how they decided to change career and work closely with his wife after he tried couple of things until he reached exactly what he likes to do and overcome all the fears and doubts he had and many obstacles along the way..

Firas is, as he mentioned it in his Linkedin profile, "A breakthrough coach, a storyteller, strategist, Marketer and speaker".. And I can assure you he's good in every single one..

Chatting with Firas felt like almost a spiritual conversation, he was so zen and talking from the heart..

I shared with him the couple of ideas I have in mind and he gave me his point of you and asked me to listen to my heart, even if this will put me through doubts and sometimes stress and fear and lack of self confidence.. And asked me to forget about the "I should.. I have to.." And put myself as a priority vs what others want and expect from me..

Time passed so quickly and Firas had to head for his training and I left thanking him and kept thinking of our discussion and I was so glad to catch up with him after all these years and hoped we gonna see each other more often from now on.

Meet "Toronto"

After almost 10 years in Dubai, the city that is considered by many people the wonderland of the 21st century, and after waiting for 7 years to get my immigration visa to Canada, I decided to leave everything behind.. A great job with Leo Burnett, amazing friends, a beautiful apartment and a life full of ups and downs but was a fantastic 10 years of my life.. I decided to leave and move to Toronto, (and maybe only Lebanese people can understand this urge of leaving and looking for a better tomorrow in a more stable place) to embark in a new journey, to look for a new adventure and discover a different world.
Obviously every move has its challenges, and a key challenge is to get to know the culture, the people, the city and adapt fast to the social environment.. And usually having friends or family can help a lot, and I was lucky to have a cousin who lives very close to Toronto and she with her husband showed me lots of support from the minute I landed.
Now after few weeks, I moved to my new apartment, started my class in Digital Communications Strategy & Social Media at University of Toronto, and will start soon the job hunt.
And to get to know Toronto up close & personal I m taking this challenge of meeting a new friend every single day.
A friend can be my new barber, a waiter in a restaurant who made me feel welcomed and pushed me to visit again or a new Canadian artist that I discovered or a place that I felt I ll be visiting often and of course all the new friends that I hope some of them will be close friends and for many many years to come.