Roz.K

I’d just moved to Toronto, Canada. I felt like I would be the only thirty *mumbles* something* year old woman of colour doing this. I felt like I would just put my head down, get on with things, and my 24 months would be up in no time.

A lot of my friends find this hard to believe, but I consider myself a bit of an introvert. I enjoy my own company, and would prefer spending my days at home rather than socializing, but I was in a new country and environment, so I had to push myself and make it known to Toronto that Roz has arrived!

I was just a week and a half in when I went to a networking event with a woman that I had connected with from a Meet-Up group.

I remember feeling somewhat nervous as I didn’t know what to expect, but also realizing that I had to talk to people, and be prepared for the whole,’oh I love you’re accent’ and for my response each time to be with a smile and to say in my best British accent ‘faaaaaaaanks!’

When we got to the event, it wasn’t too bad an atmosphere nor nerve wracking anymore. Their was a nice amount of people in attendance, and also enough room to maneuver around in.

They made us play an ice breaker game where we had to find 3 people to introduce ourselves to, get their names, and write it on our name badge to prove that we had actually done it. In my head I was like for fuxx sake! But once I got over being slightly annoyed, I went ahead and did it anyway.

I first met a nice older lady. She’d told me she had some connects in Radio and TV, and wanted to connect me to a friend of hers in the industry in Toronto. We exchanged details and went on our way. This was a great start, I was already on a roll, so I went ahead and made my next move.

I saw two people talking in the corner, and straight away was thinking easy! I can now kill two birds with one stone, and my ice breaker mission will be complete.

I went and introduced myself to both quickly, shook hands and all I was trying to hear was both of their names to write on my name badge. At first I thought they were ‘together’ and was being polite and trying to gage them out, the guy was chatty and the girl was smiley!

Whilst in conversation, the girl then said to me, ‘nice accent’ and I of course I replied with a smile and thanks!

15 minutes into our convo, with the music being turned down a little, I could hear the girl more clearly. I thought my ears were deceiving me…. ‘wait’ I said, ‘you’re British too?!’ She replied, ‘yes! That’s why I said to you nice accent!’

I felt so silly for not realizing, and once I’d gotten over that I started to ask a whole bunch of questions to my fellow Brit.

When did you arrive in Toronto? Where are you from in London? Where do you live here? How are you finding it so far? Tell me everything!