The format of a My Take is 150 words – no more, no less – to express an opinion on a different topic each week. This week’s topic was national pride.
Whenever anyone asks me where I’m from I say Canada, not Quebec. I’ve lived here my entire life and yet can’t bring myself to feel as though I’m from here. Living in the small pockets of English that contain the essence of the country’s disposition feels like living in an embassy surrounded by foreign land. I hold no animosity towards Quebec; I merely feel like I was born in a place that wasn’t my home. I’ve joked with friends about how people call Saint Jean Baptiste “la Fête Nationale” when Canada is meant to be our nation, but the more I think about it the more I realize they might be right. To fight for a place in a land that’s not my own is thus pointless. Like a tourist who’s never left I yearn for a home I’ve never lived in, my true nation.
