My name is Francisco and I came with my family to Toronto, Canada in December 3, 2005. There were three main reasons that moved to Canada; the first and most important one was because my father, a university professor at that time, was being chased by the government because he was the head of a syndicate that benefited teachers rights, but because it didn't benefit the government, the government wanted to kill him. So we came here finding Canadian asylum. The second reason that moved us was because my parents wanted my siblings and I to study in a first world country so that if any of us decides to move out of the country again, we won't have any trouble getting a job. And the third reason was for my father to get better job opportunities (which he didn't really need).
For me coming here was a very radical change in every aspect: language, weather, food, customs, life style, etc. I came in a season 180 degrees different to the season I was living in Mexico, my homeland, over there the winter temperature was between 25 C and 30 C and I arrived to Canada when the temperature was below 0 C. I remember I had to wear two jackets because one was not enough to keep me warm, all I wanted to do was stay at home and do nothing which at the same time was a little depressing. A week after I arrived, my father took me to a high school that was 3 blocks away from my house and enrolled me there. School was the last place I wanted be for the first year because I didn't know English and I felt like a mute and deft person. It was frustrating because I wasn't able to express myself the way I wanted, I could not make friends because I couldn't speak and because others wanted to be cool and not talk to the ESL people, the "dumb ones", and I couldn't make friends that spoke the same language because most of them did things that were against the values taught by my parents. I used to not like the life style people had, always rushing, always acting as if it was day of their lives and they had to everything that they could for the last time, but on the other hand made things seem in order and punctual. With food, I never had a problem, I've always loved McDonald's, Subway, and I learned to love Wendy's and Tim Horton's (we didn't have those in Mexico).
I remember I started interacting more with people during the summer because I would go to the park to play soccer, to play soccer you don't really need an extense lexicon, the only words I'd use were "here" and "pass". It was then that my life was coming out of the darkness, of that anonymity. When school started again, life wasn't as bad because my English had gotten better and now I could speak and understand more and for some reason I felt a little motivated; I joined the school's soccer team, I joined the art club, and focused more in school but still had trouble getting used to not being with my grand parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. It took me approximately three years to get used to this country, to the life style, weather, customs and not being close to my relatives, but now I feel like I'm from here because even though I still have some of my homeland's values, I've learned many more here.
