So this post is coming out of a conversation I had with Tim the other night, so if you like it than thank him, but also thank me cause let's face it I'm the one writing it.
I love my country. I like to think of myself as a proud Canadian. I watch hockey, I drink beer, and I consider myself quite polite. Ever since I was a kid I've had this idea of Canada being perfect. Canada as the peacekeeper, Canada as the home of human rights, Canada as the one country without an embarrassing history. I mean our history is so boring that I've always figured we all just agreed on everything. Like we arrived and complimented the First Nations and asked if we could stay here, and of course they said yes and ever since we've been living in harmony. Unfortunately our history is really no better than that of our neighbors down south.
There are many parts of our history that aren't exactly things to be proud of. Many people don't realize this but Canada took part in slavery. And you just have to say "residential schools" and any self-aware Canadian should feel a wave of disgust come across them. I mean I was in poli-sci the other night and we watched a video about Genocide. One of the guys said that there is no country that does not have some sort of history of genocide. A few years ago I would've thought, "but not Canada right? We're all too nice here, we'd never do something like that." This time I just knew that, yeah our country has committed such atrocities. And it sucks.
It really sucks having a perfect image of something shattered. Whether it's your country, or something else entirely. Whenever you start to look past the perfection you start uncovering the truth, you rarely find anything good. Sometimes it feels like one of the main goals of university is to make you think less of Canada. Really university just makes you think about everything differently, but sometimes I feel professors are going out of their way to make me feel worse about my country.
The bottom line is that Canada is so far from being perfect, and maybe when I say I'm Canadian I don't feel so self-righteous like I used to, but like it or not Canada is my home. And it's going to take a lot for me to stop watching hockey, drinking beer, and being polite.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Good Riddance Summer
So it's September and for a lot of us that means going back to school. For others it means bragging about how you don't have to go to school. Either way it seems school is on most people's minds. It certainly has been on my mind pretty much since May. That might sound weird or depressing, but really Summer sucks. Especially this last one.
Summer always seems like such a great idea, but it always goes on for about two months too long. Just to clear things up by "Summer" I'm referring to the time between my last exam and the start of the new year, so for you non-university folk that's about the end of April to September. It's a lot of time to really not do anything significant.
By nothing significant I mean that yes, I worked and did things, but really it was all pretty meaningless. The fact is that when I'm not in school I feel kinda useless. It's like if life is a highway (I know it's a total cliche analogy but bear with me) than the Summer is the time I have to spend waiting for the ferry that will take me to the next patch of highway so I can continue my journey. So I'm left at the side of road, twiddling my thumbs, hoping that something happens to break up the monotony.
This Summer was especially bad because on top of the usual boredom I face, in August something terrible happened. I'm not going to get into details, those of you that are close to me know what I'm talking about, and well I just don't feel like talking about it, or even writing about it. Anyway so August was pretty much a write off. I did get to quit my job, which was fun, plus I got to visit my brother in Yellowknife which was a lot of fun. You've never partied till you've hit up the Raven. But overall this Summer, like so many others, was a total bust.
Needless to say, I am very relieved to be back in school. I don't care if I have a stack of boring books to read, or if I'm already behind in a class, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Summer always seems like such a great idea, but it always goes on for about two months too long. Just to clear things up by "Summer" I'm referring to the time between my last exam and the start of the new year, so for you non-university folk that's about the end of April to September. It's a lot of time to really not do anything significant.
By nothing significant I mean that yes, I worked and did things, but really it was all pretty meaningless. The fact is that when I'm not in school I feel kinda useless. It's like if life is a highway (I know it's a total cliche analogy but bear with me) than the Summer is the time I have to spend waiting for the ferry that will take me to the next patch of highway so I can continue my journey. So I'm left at the side of road, twiddling my thumbs, hoping that something happens to break up the monotony.
This Summer was especially bad because on top of the usual boredom I face, in August something terrible happened. I'm not going to get into details, those of you that are close to me know what I'm talking about, and well I just don't feel like talking about it, or even writing about it. Anyway so August was pretty much a write off. I did get to quit my job, which was fun, plus I got to visit my brother in Yellowknife which was a lot of fun. You've never partied till you've hit up the Raven. But overall this Summer, like so many others, was a total bust.
Needless to say, I am very relieved to be back in school. I don't care if I have a stack of boring books to read, or if I'm already behind in a class, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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