Ashley Brown, 25

Hi there! I’m Ashley — yes, like the furniture store, and yes, I’ve heard every joke, and no, I will not be offering you a discount. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you about me!

I grew up in a little town just outside Calgary, but Bridgeland is home now and I adore it. It’s one of those neighbourhoods that feels like a small town inside the city — I live in a character house with two roommates, and our street has a community garden, a little free library, and a cat named Biscuit who technically belongs to the neighbours but has decided he’s everyone’s. My parents still live out in the country; my dad’s a mechanic, my mom works at the school, and I go home for Sunday dinners where my dad pretends my car “just happens” to need something checked. It always needs something checked.

I’m a pediatric nurse at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, and I will tell you straight up: it is the best job in the world and also the hardest. Kids are unbelievable. Last month I had a six-year-old patient who was terrified of getting an IV, so we made up a whole story where the IV was a “superhero power line” and she got to name her powers before we started. She chose “invisibility and extra dessert.” The IV went in without a tear, and she told every nurse on the floor about her powers for a week. That’s the job — turning the scary stuff into stories. My coworkers are like family; nursing bonds you fast, and our group chat is equal parts memes and genuine love.

Now for the part that makes people laugh when they hear “pediatric nurse”: I’m a Calgary Stampede volunteer, and I take it extremely seriously. I’ve volunteered for three years — I work with one of the committees, up at 5am in my whites, and I live for those ten days in July. The pancakes, the parade, the rodeo, the midway at midnight when the lights are all on — it’s the greatest outdoor show on earth and I will die on that hill. My volunteer crew is a second family; we have matching hats and everything. If you’ve never had a Stampede breakfast pancake flipped by a sleep-deprived volunteer at 7am, you haven’t lived.

And because Stampede energy needs an outlet year-round: line dancing. I go to Ranchman’s — the legendary Cookhouse and Dancehall — at least twice a month, and I am not embarrassed to say I know the Electric Slide, the Copperhead Road, and about twenty others by heart. My boots are broken in, my hat is real, and I will absolutely drag you onto the dance floor. Fair warning: I am a patient teacher but a relentless one. You will learn the steps.

Banff weekends are my reset button. My girlfriends and I have a tradition: drive out Friday after work, soak in the Upper Hot Springs, sleep in, then do a big hike Saturday — Tunnel Mountain if we’re feeling lazy, Sulphur Mountain if we’re feeling ambitious. Then it’s dinner on Banff Ave and the drive home with the mountains in the rearview mirror. It never, ever gets old.

Bridgeland life is my happy place: morning runs along the Bow River pathway, coffee at the little café on 1st Ave, the Bridgeland-Riverside farmers’ market on Thursdays in summer. Calgary gets a bad rap as just an oil town, but this city has heart — the river pathways, the food scene on 17th Ave, the way everyone waves during Stampede like we’re all cousins.

What am I looking for? Someone kind, first — my job teaches you fast that kindness is everything. Someone with a sense of humour who doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Bonus points if you’ll two-step with me at Ranchman’s, eat a pancake breakfast at 7am in July, and not mind that I cry at every kids’ movie. I want a partner who’s good — good to their family, good to strangers, good on a dance floor (or willing to learn). If you can make me laugh after a twelve-hour shift, honestly, that’s the whole ballgame.