Personal Essay: My Journey To Canada

As a Canadian high school student living in Alberta I only consider myself as part of the nation I was born in, which is Canada. My parents were born in Pakistan and almost all of my family is in the Middle East, although a few also reside in areas such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Despite this, I have only been to these areas once in my lifetime, and during that time I was barely a year old. This is why I do not consider myself a part of any other nation besides Canada. The culture and language of these areas, especially the lifestyle of the middle east are very familiar to me, having grown up surrounded by them. However, I do not have any personal connection to the east and because I have lived in Canada my entire life, I cannot even fathom the idea of aligning myself with a nation other than Canada and I do not consider myself a hyphenated Canadian.

During the summer I visited Washington, D.C. as part of my travels and stayed there during the week for the Fourth of July celebrations. The annual parade brought out a huge crowd of people all dressed up in red, blue and white. The celebrations were extravagant and at the end of the day I got to watch the fireworks near Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument. That day I
We have a community filled with people of all ethnicities and from varying backgrounds. This multiculturalism is what makes Canada unique. All Canadians are united not only by language, geography, culture and history, but we also have our own subcultures within the larger “Canadian culture”. Identifiable Canadian activities such as going to Tim Hortons, playing Ice Hockey etc. all have their own cultural twists that the many subcultures add on. This makes Canada unique in a special way. We are stilled united by common ideas and practices except the difference is that as Canadians we are free to put our own spin on