Hello, my name is Lucy, I’m 19, and I’m from Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. Fort
Simpson has a population of about 1,300 people, we’re located in the southwestern area of the Dehcho region, and we’re a part of the Dene First Nations. Fun fact, we’re also the only village in the NWT! I’d like to start out by saying how lucky I am to have been given an opportunity like this, and I am very grateful to the staff and volunteers who make this program possible in the first place. Thank you.

I joined the Next program thanks to the encouragement of my teacher (hi Jill) and my bestfriend (hi Kesha, maybe you’ll have seen this before I’ve told you about it, haha. Also happy birthday :>).

The goal in this program is to let youth experience city life and experience different paths in life to see if maybe they’ll find something they want to do in the future, after they’ve graduated. And I’m immensely proud to say that I’ve found something that interests me thanks to this. In the next program, myself and 14 others stayed in Ottawa for the summer (from July 3rd to July 30th). Ottawa is huge, I’ve literally never been in a place so big (with a population of over 1mil??).

Since moving here for 4 weeks, I’ve had many opportunities to build healthy habits (like waking up and getting ready on time, or stretching everyday) and foster both confidence in myself and independence in my life. Everyday is a new chance to grow, whether it’s learning to live on my own, or meeting new people, or trying new foods.

Being away from home for so long (especially considering I had already been away for a
week) means it’s often that I was homesick, wishing to be back with my family and friends, in my own home, in my own bed. But the staff and other participants here are very supportive, so I’ve done fairly well here (and now I’ve only got about a week left here).

I have to say, this program definitely tested me. For the first two weeks I was here, there was a heat warning. Meaning that for most days, it was over 28° (I can firmly say I am very ready to go back home where it’s 23°). Combined with the endless work I’ve been doing, assignments, volunteering, and workshop classes, has been very hard on me (and my poor feet). But overall, so far, this program has been very rewarding. In the beginning, I was so sure I’d cave and end up going home because I was scared, but I stuck it out and I’m very proud of myself. Gotta say, though, it’s genuinely so crazy going from a population of 1,313 people to Ottawa’s 1,089,319 (as of July 23rd, 2025).

Overall, being in such a big place has been such an awesome experience. I know more
about what I want for my future, I learned about my financial options for college/uni (thanks to the workshop classes), and I’ve met so many cool new people (including, but not limited to, the 14 other participants, the 4 group leaders who gave their time to live alongside us, Dan, and the volunteers who taught us about their careers).

I’ve learned a lot in my time here and I’m very excited to finally go home and tell everyone I love all about it. I really can’t wait to see where I go from here (I’m so jealous of future me, I wanna know if I did it!).

• Lucy