Loving Your Heritage
Accepting where you come from and where you go plays an integral part in living a fulfilled life.
My best friend Carla was born in another country. She and her sister Sylvia had two completely different ways of dealing with their ethnic background when moving to Canada in the early 60’s. Neither sister spoke English when they arrived here.
Sylvia’s lack of self-esteem made her concerned about acceptance and decided from the get go that she wanted to “fit in” and so shunned her background and found the “cool kids” in school to hang out with. She completely lost interest in the language and culture of her homeland and turned to smoking and eventually to drugs. She left home early and proceeded to live a very troubled and unsettled life. She lost her mother tongue and has not reconciled with her family to this day.
Carla on the other hand liked who she was and where she came from. Her peers at school liked her and thought it was interesting that she was born in another country. Sometimes they made fun of her accent or misuse of words as she was learning the English language, but instead of getting upset, she would find the humour in the situation and laugh herself. Because she thought it was kind of cool to have something different to offer her peers, they thought it was cool too.
When she got older, she travelled back to visit relatives and was able to get to know them because she never lost her native tongue and consequently has become very close to a number of relatives. Acquaintances never guess that she is not Canadian born because despite having a very strong connection to her nationality, she is also completely Canadian. She is close to her parents here and her relatives in her homeland and feels very blessed that her life has been enriched by her heritage and by being a proud Canadian.
Although these two sisters had different personalities, and may have still gone the same route, I believe that it is more than coincidence that Carla’s life is on a better and happier track than Sylvia’s. She accepted and acknowledged where she came from and has spent her life embracing the best of both worlds.
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