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Joel Tansey joins Golden Star staff

Four months ago I was living just outside of Seoul, a city of over 20 million people and one of the largest economic centres in all of Asia

Four months ago I was living just outside of Seoul, a city of over 20 million people and one of the largest economic centres in all of Asia. I was teaching English to students from ages five all the way up to sixteen. I am extremely excited to move to a town that will give me a completely different lifestyle than what I’m used to and already I have noticed the warmth and friendliness of the people of Golden.

I was born in Montreal and grew up in Milton, a growing suburb near Toronto. I’m a diehard Habs fan (hey, at least it’s better than cheering for the Leafs) and former Expos fan and some of my earliest memories are from the 1993 Stanley Cup and the tragic baseball strike in 1994 that both thrilled and crushed me as a five year old.

I’ve wanted to be a sports writer since I realized I wasn’t good enough to be a professional athlete. This happened sometime in between getting cut from the Grade 4 volleyball team and getting walloped especially hard during a pre-season high school football practice (I’ll let you decide which event brought me to tears quicker). Growing up, my parents knew to hand me the sports section as soon as the Montreal Gazette (and later the Toronto Star) arrived on our doorstep. Eventually I started to learn to enjoy the rest of the paper too, but sports news and stories remain my biggest passion and I’m very excited to check out as many Rockets games as I can this upcoming season.

I attended Wilfrid Laurier University’s journalism program in Brantford, Ontario (which is known for Wayne Gretzky, the invention of the telephone and very little else). After graduating, I realized I wasn’t quite ready for the real world and I decided to embark on an adventure to South Korea in an attempt to broaden my horizons. The experience was a success even though I quickly realized that teaching wasn’t for me. I was fortunate enough to visit Thailand, Vietnam, China and numerous other countries in between contracts. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the food, the insanely low cost of living and the exciting culture shock of living somewhere so different than Canada, but overall I’m happy to be back after nearly three years abroad.

Up until I visited Vancouver and Whistler for the 2010 Olympics, I hadn’t travelled west of Windsor. Since my first taste of B.C., I’ve fantasized about living in Western Canada and now that I’m finally here, I couldn’t be happier.

In my spare time I enjoy reading, tennis, kayaking, checking my fantasy football team and watching any sport that might happen to be on TV. Most of all I enjoy travelling and experiencing new things and I plan to get involved in all of the adventure sports that Golden has to offer. Having applied and interviewed for jobs all across the country, I’m glad to have landed a job in a town with so much to do and see and I look forward to meeting all of you in the near future.