Introduction

When I walked down those steps of the plane in Montreal little did I know then what I know now. I was about to embark on a personal journey that would lead to my dearest Mum saying on my return,
“You went away a boy and you came back a man!”
As we know, Mums always know best!
My personal diary chronicles an 18 year old lad who wrote down his thoughts to help him deal with different situations whilst living amongst some of the best people he has ever had the privilege to meet.
It is now 33 years since I went to Labrador so I think if I can safely invoke a 30 year rule to categorically state that much of my personal comments are now invalid and unreliable! I would also like to state that I bear absolutely no bad feelings whatsoever to any people I have “slagged off” in what follows and I hope they will have no ill feelings towards me by what they have read! After all it was a very long time ago and must be irrelevant to people’s lives today. On the contrary, I have the most outstanding and fondest memories about all the people I worked with. This diary was merely my own way of doing everything in my power to be on the very best of terms with everybody. In fact, everybody should know that I came away after only one year of V.S.O. knowing that I had benefited so much from my experience that I can thoroughly recommend it to anybody who would like it as a way of helping other people. I hope you will enjoy reading it and end up feeling a part of my experience in the most incredible year of my life.