Friend #4 - Greg
My Unsolicited Dating Advice Pal
Week 4. My writing schedule hasn’t been consistent, sorry. I had to make a pitstop in Toronto for a couple of weeks so my friends these next two weeks will be from there. I’ll be back in Miami until the end of December after that.
I met Greg yesterday at a tech event but I found our interaction to personable and comical.
He’s an engineer who is originally from a town called Grimbsy but now lives in Toronto with his girlfriend, Jackie.
We speak about his Italian heritage and he explains that he is now in the process of obtaining his Italian passport. He hopes to be able to work remotely from there in the future but wants to find a job in tech first.
“Why did you decide to come out today?” I ask him.
“I like learning about other people’s lives,” he explains.
“Me too. There was this pianist named Alice Herz-Sommer, she was the oldest living holocaust survivor at one point and she always said that she was interested in the lives of others,” I reply.
As I pry into his life, Greg recounts meeting his girlfriend during university but because they went to different schools, the relationship was long-distance which posed a lot of challenges. They reconnected two and a half years ago and have been together since.
“I’m not very romantic,” he tells me, “but I do all the cooking.”
“If you ever need any advice on romance, message me on Slack,” I say.
I tell him that I’m from Richmond Hill and we get into religion. He says that his cousin was engaged to a Russian Jew but that the engagement was recently called off. She wanted him to convert and it complicated things.
“You should propose to your girlfriend. I feel like next summer would be a good time,” I suggest, while also inviting myself to his wedding.
“You have it all planned out for me,” he laughs.
We talk about Toronto and he says that coming from a small town, he loves the city and could see himself here for a long time.
I disclose that I’m really confused and have no idea where I want to live but feel that it’s time to start building a life in Toronto - out of practicality.
