Candidly, the best encounters rarely start with a swipe on an app. They start with a double-take across a sun-drenched café, or the particular charge of a wink held a beat too long across a wine bar.

Toronto is home for now; I’m working toward my second degree, a Master’s underway, in a city that shares my inability to sit still. While Vancouver raised me, (and that coastline hasn’t fully let go so I find myself in the pacific mist often), Toronto is where I found a place with the same appetite for novelty I’ve always had. Turns out I’m easily won over by unconventionality, well delivered – or better yet, a conversation that actually stretches you. I light up for that every time.

There’s a certain thrill in the almost-connection; the lingering sense our paths have likely crossed before, in some other neighbourhood, without either of us noticing.

This city runs on energy, but genuine synergy is rarer than people let on. Some things are better felt out in person than explained. Let’s find out if that spark I think I remember was real, or build something better than memory from scratch.