Hello everyone, I know this topic has come up on many of my blogs stating about the Highway 401 East in Ontario, Canada and How big of an impact it’s had on me and my life. It is a sentimental value to me. The Highway 401 has brought a lot of memories for me from when I was a child up til this point. I am very happy to have this connection with a highway I love driving on, and going to my Happy Place Montreal. I love Highway 401 East because It its a corridor to Montreal and to Autoroute 20 in Quebec. I am such a sentimental person that even a highway is special to me. I know it sounds odd and a little strange, but I know that in all of us we have a sentimental thing that may not be a big deal to another person, but it can be a big deal to one person. Its like one persons junk is another person’s treasure to sort of speak. It is something that I have a strong bond with. I know you maybe thinking a strong bond with a highway? Sounds silly doesn’t it? Well, it is not silly to some people. I have encountered many others who feel the same way I feel about it. I am a super driving nut. I love to drive and especially passing by the big trucks and big rigs on the 401. I love it so much. I am a huge fan of those big transport trucks and I know a lot about them and when I have conversations with people on the type of truck it is, or the make, people say wow, you are so knowledgeable about it. I like to learn a lot of new things and live to tell about it. So moving on, when I go to OnRoute Service centers when I take a break on the 401, You never realize how fast you go until you stop at a service center and see these cars, vans, transport trucks zoom right by and its amazing to know that, that is how fast were going.
Anyway, I am very happy to share this sentimental value with everyone. I believe in blogging, you can write about anything and open your heart out on everything. I believe I feel better when I blog and share my stories with the world and with different people. It is what makes the world go around hearing stories, different opinions, suggestions, and stories such as this one. I have written about this a few times, but I just can’t get over how much of a value it has in my life. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to share this with everyone. Its amazing what this blogging world has become, so many people write, so many people are in the same criteria, genre as I and I like that so much. reading peoples opinions, reading peoples stories. Its very nice to read.
Thank you all for sharing your stories, thank you all for having the guts to write about things. It takes a lot out of someone to put it all out for the world to see. Everyone should pat themselves on the shoulder. Blogging and sharing is a beautiful thing. So glad so many are doing it.
Talin Orfali Ghazarian 
It really amuses me how we humans form emotional connections with objects, like places, cars, or in your case, the highway.
It is probably what keeps us motivated to face our challenges, I believe. Facing our challenges helps us move forward on the path (or highway) to self-discovery.
Hope your journey is joyful! đŸ™‚
Thanks for tagging on to my site. I had some trouble going to /opening your other pages. Might be a distance thing but I tried several times and that little nasty face asked me if I wanted to ‘kill the page’ because it wasn’t responsive.
Roads are interesting. I’m more settled now than I have been so it is nice to be familiar with the roads around me. Though I just discovered a new one that wasn’t to far…Dairy Road. Not much at night, but the cows where out during the day, the next day when I had to go back to a business on that road. All the best.
My job as a nurse working in community makes me reliant upon the 401 in Toronto. Unfortunately, I can’t share your sentiment over the 401 since I drive it in rush hour traffic. On your previous blog about drivers, I wrote that someone almost clipped the front end of my car yesterday as he was trying to go across 4 lanes of traffic. That happened on the 401. LOL!
Very good post.
We live in South-Africa (Pretoria ) my wife is South-African,me German.Did you think to leave Canada one day and live perhaps in Europe or Asia. (please forgive my bad written english )
Dear Talin
This might a little off, for some reason I wish to share it with you, because of the content, I really wish there was a more private way to do it, I’ve had to endure the not so understanding views of others. This is why I love the 401.
When I was young, I was in a very bad place. I was an adoptee with parents and 5 of their natural children, that abused myself and my natural sister. They beat us with pipes, wooden paddles, and did many other bad things, living there was a constant state of fear and degradation. School was no better, the kids there did alot of teasing and bullying etc, they tend to do that if they think they are stronger than you. So life was hell. At church the pastor preached judgement, and hell, that bad things happened to bad people. Everywhere it seemed, life was a severe cage of cause and effect. A life of which, I was told, I should be greatful of because strangers took me in. By the time I was 12, I was severey depressed, frightened and lonely. I couldn’t look anyone in the eye, I thought everyone hated me, so I just kept to myself and endured.
The school took a trip to Ottawa. We went on the 401 from Highway 10 (now Huronontario St.) up to Highway 16 (now the 416). I’d always wanted to be on the 401 because the way people spoke about it. It seemed big, fresh and exciting. The King’s highway signs where the standard back than, and in them I saw faces, and expressions. 401 always smiled, the MC… well, wasn’t expecting that, I really didn’t know how to imagine that lol. So the 401 East made quite an impression. Despite the hell I lived in, being on the 401 was to experience excitement, happiness and freedom. Away from everything at home. Everytime I was sad afterwards, I would reflect on that time, kind of like seeking light in darkness.
Over time, I began to notice something; you tend to do those things when trying to distract from reality. In really bad moments, the number 401 or mention of the highway in news would pop up and I would instantly be reminded of the immense happiness of those times. It never failed. There was an extremely bad time, I was 17 years old, and on my own with my sister (we escaped the adopted home) and I was trying to finish highschool. Options where limited, because while trying to finish school there are other things such as rent, food, bills etc that needed to be paid in order to exist. My sister had an abusive boyfriend, in good times he’d write long detailed love letters to her, than when things went from good to worse, which they always did, the couple would fight, argue, and curse. Objects would get thrown through the apartment, they’d act aggressive, and when I wasn’t saving her from his fists, I often ended up trying to diffuse situations to keep the calm. Eventually I reached a point where I couldn’t take it anymore, all the years of being afraid, the abuse, put downs, the unahappiness, overwhelmed, like an overflowing pot, or wide open spigot let loose. I just started crying in the living room one afternoon, with just lots and lots of tears. They didn’t hear me and I was so glad. The news came on, at first I didn’t pay attention to it, because they where shouting more aggressively and something broke against the wall, I thought I might have to go save her again, but eventually I saw that they where reporting on the 401. I was in Winnipeg. They panned the expanse of the highway in Toronto, while that happened, through all the tears, that familiar feeling of calm and love overcame that by the end of piece, I’d stopped crying. I realized as long as I could remember 401 I could endure them, and the bad things.
My 401 experience is different than most. Even though I am far away, in the bad times, it shows up, either in dreams as a person or the highway itself. It is well mannered, and gracious, like a guardian angel, and powerful, just like the highway. I wish I could post a dream just to show an example, but this post has taken up enough space as it is. So thank you Talin for posting, don’t give up on the things that make you feel happy. All of us seek happiness in many things, even if it’s family or friends, love, organizations etc. It just comes to us differently, and for me it was the 401.
Kal
It is amazing how we come to place so much feeling in places and objects. I’m selling my car at the moment because I can’t even sit in it without thinking of the girl I’ve lost.
Hello Talin! Thanks for liking my post. I’ve never thought of having sentimental feelings towards a highway but I can hear through your writing just how excited you are about it. Like you, what I love most about blogs is hearing other people’s stories, opinions, and their interests. I especially love your last paragraph – very good reminder for us bloggers. Thank you for blogging. đŸ™‚
I like your post about highways and trucks very much. It makes me imagine a big scaled coutry in my small scaled homeland and makes me so released..
Thanks for the uplifting words.
Ah yes, I miss that highway! I used to drive it every summer to see a friend of mine down in Toronto and looooooved the open feel, the freedom, the ability to drive 130 km/h with no one noticing! I was young…
I enjoyed reading this piece. I love to travel, and this post made me want to visit Montreal again. I haven’t been there for ages. Thanks for visiting my blog!