From Far and Wide
My migration story
It was a Friday night. My dad said that they could hear music and laughter from a party on the street below on the evening I was born.
My name is Susie, and I was born in Tacuatí, Paraguay.
A long dirt road dotted with homes made up the town of Santa Clara, which is where I lived the first years of my childhood. Life in Santa Clara was quiet, and the warm weather in the southern hemisphere meant that we could play outside all year round. My family went to a Mennonite church down the road from our house. Some of my extended family lived in Santa Clara too, so I was spoiled by aunts and uncles and got to spend a lot of time playing with my cousins.
From Paraguay to Canada - what a long journey!
Little did I know, my family would soon be leaving behind mango trees and Paraguay’s famous red sand for maple trees and Canada’s beautiful winter snow.
Just after my third birthday, my parents, my four siblings and I moved 8,707 km North to our new home in Canada. Everything was new and different. Our home in Paraguay seemed like a tropical oasis compared to the cramped house-trailer we lived in when we arrived in Ontario. Everyone spoke a language that I didn’t understand. The weather was bitterly cold and unlike anything I had experienced before.
Soon after arriving in Canada, it was time for me to start school. As a quiet and shy child, the idea of being with strangers all day was intimidating to me. I did not speak English very well nor did I have friends who shared my Mennonite culture at school, which made me feel like an outsider at times.
Thankfully, my new Canadian friends and teachers were so welcoming that I started to feel like I belonged. My ESL teacher was especially supportive and I always enjoyed reading and writing stories with her and other English learners at my school. I started to be less intimidated by school when I experienced how kind everyone was. Eventually, I loved going to school!
Growing up, I came to realize that part of what makes Canada so wonderful is the people who come from far and wide to live in this country! I don’t have to be exactly like everyone else to fit in. We are all unique and that is something to be celebrated, not something to be hidden.
The positive influence my teachers had on me inspired me to become a teacher myself! I hope that I can welcome new students to Canada and teach them that they are welcome and belong in a Canadian classroom, no matter where they are from!
If you want to hear more stories about migration, explore the map below! Click on a country, and then on the country's flag, to reach the website " i am a migrant " where you can read stories of migration from all around the world!
Stories of Migration
