Finding love at Georgian

Tiffany and Miles Westall were both students at Georgian College when they met 14 years go. Miles moved from Vancouver to attend the Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (Automotive Management) program at the Barrie Campus, and Tiffany, of Sarnia, was enrolled in the Business Administration – Marketing program.

Tiffany came out to a house party hosted by Miles who hosted lots of great parties back then! They started dating after three years of friendship and will now be married for 10 years this coming May. They have two boys Nixon (8) and Spencer (4), a beautiful home, a dog named Stuart and two cats Jake and Chloe.

After graduation, Miles’ parents moved to Saudi Arabia for work and Tiffany’s parents moved to Barrie. The pair didn’t really have anywhere to go, so they stayed in Barrie to see what careers were out there. They fell in love with what the area has to offer: outdoor adventure in every season, a short distance to their cottage and close proximity to an international airport!

Tiffany, who graduated in 2009, now works at Georgian as the Food and Beverage Co-ordinator for The Last Class at the Barrie Campus. She’s worked there for approximately 16 years in various roles. During the pandemic, she’s been redeployed to Bear Essentials (the bookstore) to assist with processing online orders.

Miles, who graduated in 2007, is the Service Manager at Barrie Harley-Davidson. Since 2008 he’s been managing 15 staff members in a high-volume, multimillion-dollar service department, with the bonus of having a great time riding motorcycles.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, they agreed to answer a few questions about love.

What makes love last? Accept the other person for who they are. Don’t try to change them. Everyone has habits (annoying and nice), flaws, and perfections. Learn to listen to what makes the other happy and understand that you’re two different people. Some compromise is to be expected.  

How do you keep love thriving during life’s ups and downs? By being friends. That entails many things – doing activities together, talking together, watching movies together. We’re very good at understanding each other.  When things start to stress us out, sometimes we act selfishly and do something for ourselves; other times we act selflessly and do things for the family. We love to cuddle with the kids because they’re small, and we know it doesn’t last. We’ve also learned to go with the flow because really each day is a new adventure in our household. We want each other to be the best version of ourselves, so we support each other when an idea comes up. Appreciating that we’re together and knowing that time goes fast, we enjoy every minute.  

What’s your definition of love? Being able to live life with someone who makes you happy. Someone who lets you be you. Having your heart pump a little harder than normal because you’re excited to be with the other person.

Hear what Tiffany and Miles say what their favourite thing about each other is:

Do you do anything special to celebrate Valentine’s Day? To be honest no. When we got our first pet together, Jake our cat, we decided we would celebrate his birthday on Feb. 14. We don’t need one particular day to express our love for each in a big way; we express it daily in the little things that matter more (a kiss good morning, waking up early and starting the coffee before the other wakes, having a glass of wine poured and ready for when you get home from a hard day at work, a surprise of flowers).

What advice would you give to new couples in love? We know it will sound typical, but never go to bed mad at each other. Also, start a hobby together that you both love; we scuba dive, which is a great couple’s hobby because you always need to have a dive buddy! We learned to dive with Simcoe Diving right here in Barrie.

If you care about the other person, don’t do things that hurt their feelings. When you’re together, do the activities you love most, don’t hide your hobbies. If you like mountain biking, or whatever, don’t stop doing it because the other person doesn’t want you to, that’s the kind of stuff that after 10 years causes pent-up frustration and separation.

Become best friends. If you aren’t best friends, it’s not as easy. Have common long-term goals, or at least lay the cards on the table. Not on the first date, but as things get serious. Kids, no kids, live in Nunavut, live in downtown Toronto. This type of commonality will help keep both people happy in the long run.