Coming ‘home’ for the holidays is always a strange experience.

I moved to Montreal a little over five years ago and at some point, I’m not quite sure when, it became the city I call “home.”

Winnipeg will always be my “home town” but every time I return I feel a little more detached. It’s probably not a surprise considering I’ve hardly been back since I left, usually just a couple weeks around Christmas.

Winnipeg hardly changes and when anything does, it always seems to be for the worse. When I lived here I hated that, now I find it nice to have something so consistent to come back to.

Something struck me yesterday, most of the people I know in Winnipeg have very different attitudes towards university than most of the people I know in Montreal.

Now, I know this is purely subjective but it seems to me that people tend to take a little more time with their degrees in Montreal, that they feel the student experience is something to be savoured, not rushed.

Most of the Winnipegers I know either finished their degrees quickly, dropped out, or are in medicine or law.

My perceptions may be shaped by who I know in each city, most of the Winnipegers I know grew up here while most of the people I know in Montreal moved there from somewhere else.

But it really does seem to me that young people, broadly speaking, have different priorities in each city. In Montreal I hear a lot of talk about careers, in Winnipeg I hear a lot of talk about marriages.

I think it may have to do with the nature of the two cities, Montreal is a city of students. In Montreal people ask if you’re a student, in Winnipeg people ask what you do.

Even though I don’t think I’ll ever live in Winnipeg again, it’s always nice to come back. And it’s always nice to be home with your family.