I AM CANADIAN

**** DISCLAIMER****

I’m not saying that Canada is perfect, far from it. Just like any other country, we have issues to work on like having better healthcare, employment and education. This post exists merely to illustrate my gratefulness to being born in Canada, and by no means is intended to degrade any other country.

After reading about shootings, attacks, and wars all over the place, there is no question that the world we live in at the moment is in great turmoil. May you be a developing country or leading the world economy, there is no escaping the atrocities that lurk the corners of the Earth.

I’ve always been told to never take for granted, to be so lucky to be born in Canada, especially in this era. I knew my parents fled their home country during a war that divided their nation- Vietnam. They left everything they knew behind: their riches, their family, everything. Slowly, they saw the government take possession of everything they owned. They were stripped of everything but their dignity and their pride. They have witnessed first-hand the filthiest sides of human nature.

Then, fast-forward a few years and a miracle was born: me. Little Dalena was always constantly reminded of the vast opportunities that awaited her, purely by being born in one of the safest countries in the world- especially when she behaved terribly. She always more or less knew her luck, but mainly from hearing her parents’ stories from the past. Like any child, she found things unfair: why did she have to perpetually listen to these depressing stories? Surely, her classmates had it good. They probably didn’t have to be reminded of their luck.

But now, after all the recent events as well as gaining insight from people around me, news, and videos, I have understood my incredible fortune. It hit me like a truck, like a punch in the face. It was as if I just woke up from a long, everlasting slumber. I have just realized how incredibly blessed I am and am just so grateful about it.

I am grateful that I was born in a family and a nation where education was the priority. I am able to seek the education that I want and therefore able to not only have the opportunity to choose a profession, but also realize my potential.

I am grateful to live in a society where laws ensure my well-being and are abided by. I feel perfectly comfortable walking down the streets alone, with my headphones on, even at night. I don’t have to constantly watch my back and be suspicious of everyone around me. I can actually assume- for the most part anyway- that people around me have good intentions.

I am grateful that Canada is a peaceful country. Hearing the number of casualties from attacks/shootings/bombings are not part of my morning routine. I don’t have to pray, every single day, for my family and friends. It’s a given that they are not in danger and will live to see another day.

Finally, I am grateful for my health. I live in a place where the air does not hinder my body. I come from a place where I can seek medical advice and be treated.  I live in a place where the food quality is regulated and take for granted that I am not ingesting pure garbage.

One of my high school teachers once said: “No one attacks Canada not because we’re likable, but because we’re harmless”. It was a joke, of course. But in times like these, I wouldn’t mind hearing a joke about our English accents nor how ridiculously polite we are. I’d rather be a harmless laughing stock than witness the daily horror in war-torn countries.

On that note, travel safely.

Santé, Cheers

PS: Ironically, I really like Jim Jefferies’ latest standup-Freedumb. Widely inappropriate, but somewhat relevant to this post. Check it out peeps.

PPS: This is a rather dark and very personal post… I’ll try to go easy on this type in the future and keep it light. Also, do you like this kind of stuff? Comments, suggestions and any type of feedback are welcome!

PPPS: I really want to end on a positive note, so here's a classic Canadian ad.

Finding your Passion

You must be thinking: “Oh great, another unoriginal, inspiring post for teachers. We get it, you mold minds, change kids and work super hard. We know.”

But hear me out. I know I sometimes get annoyed with those kinds of post but I swear, this one is different! I’ll cut through the oh so inspiring clichés and really talk about the passion, what it really feels like to make a living out of something you’re so passionate about that you can’t think of anything else.

I chose to teach because I really don’t see myself doing anything else. I’ve had a number of bad experiences, a few good ones... and then I had a perfect dream. That perfect dream where the other teachers valued English just as much as mathematics or French, where my CT sat back and really let me shine, where I had my own classroom so I didn’t have to constantly run around the whole school, where the students valued learning and were acting as a whole team, not rejecting anyone... a dream where everything just went so well that I started getting paranoid (because I had the absolute worst experience prior). In such an environment, it’s just so easy.

So how do you know you’ve found your passion? Well let me tell you: it’s the best feeling in the world. It’s a feeling that you never thought existed until you’ve actually lived it.

It’s when you constantly have a smile on your face, when you just rethink about the funny moments during the day and laugh about them all by yourself. Sure, there may be a few bad moments, but those are outweighed by all the good ones, the victories-may they be big or small.

It’s when your heart is filled up with so much joy you think it’s gonna explode. It’s when you think about all the little people you see/meet and wonder, just a bit, if they feel the same way about you. But it doesn’t matter, really, because you care for them no matter what. Sure, they might have messed up a bit today, disrupted a bit, but at the end of the day, you love them anyways.

It’s when you continuously want to improve on what you do. Yes, you’ve mastered a few aspects in the field, but you’re a lot more interested in constructive criticism, because that will help you become the best _______ you can be. You don’t mind spending hours and hours on different projects related to your work -and being happy about it- and are always interested in the latest discoveries (bogus or not) related to your field.

It's when you don’t even realize that you’ve been living through/breathing in your work all day long. Everything you see, hear, touch and feel just make your mind explode with ideas and theories.

And that, my dear friends, is how you know you've found your calling. I just happen to be really lucky to have everything fall into place as I went along. Wouldn't the world be a better place where the ultimate goal was driven by happiness and passion instead of greed and power?

... That would be a whole other post though (perhaps for my hippie side).

Till then, keep searching for that flame.

Kippis