By Tom Irvine, special to the News

Few decisions can have as significant an impact on your day-to-day life as the choice of where to live. The city where you reside can affect everything from the kind of people you meet to the career opportunities that are available to you.
In fact, most people have a special affinity for the place they call home. The relationship you have with the city you live in can, in many ways, resemble the other relationships in your life. There are good times, challenging times, times when you feel like you want to get away, even times when you’re not entirely sure what you want.
For the majority of my life, the relationship I’ve had with this city could be classified as tenuous at best. While I had always considered Hamilton as liveable, until a few years ago I’m not sure I would have classified it as likeable.
Growing up, I felt that Toronto was the place I had to be. In my mind, Toronto was the centre of the universe, complete with office towers, concert halls, nightlife and was rife with opportunity. Truthfully, I never really gave Hamilton much of a chance, I always thought of Hamilton as a stop-over — Toronto was the destination.
My fixation with Toronto turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. For years, I commuted over three hours a day to work there because I was convinced that it was where I needed to be. The problem with fixating on some place is that it can blind you to what was right in front of you all along.
Only after growing tired of commuting did I finally begin to realize what I was missing.
Once I had, and took the time to explore this city, it didn’t take long to gain a truer perspective. Not only does this city have a great deal of opportunity, the potential exists for better and bigger things to come.
According to a Gallup study of 26 North American cities that focused on residents’ emotional attachment to their communities, they found three main qualities: social offerings (entertainment venues and places to meet), openness (how welcoming a place is, how diverse it is) and the area’s esthetics (physical beauty and green spaces).
I’m grateful to live in a city that would rank highly in all three categories.
While I may have taken time to embrace it, I can proudly say that I am a Hamiltonian through and through.
My recommendation to everyone is to take the time to explore and appreciate everything this city has to offer — its natural beauty, the culture, our burgeoning art scene, our wonderful shops and restaurants and most importantly its people.
Tom Irvine (tirvine@
reevesfinancial.com) is a Mountain resident and the Chief Marketing Officer at Reeves Financial Services.
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