I have been away from my home country longer than I lived there. However, I did not move to just one place so that I can say I am more Canadian than Filipino. I lived and studied and worked in various places and often feel like I have connection with all these different countries and cultures and languages.
I feel very lucky I was able to travel and live in different parts of the world. More and more, I feel we are interconnected and what happens at the other side of the globe impacts many other countries. As people get more and more mobile, as the number of transnational migrants and citizens increase, there is a growing inter-relation that will just keep growing.
However much I get involved towards preserving Philippine culture here in Edmonton, when I am travelling, I feel compelled to say, I am Canadian, originally from the Philippines. I am never just one and not the other, constantly straddling many cultures. We should view this positively, as an enrichment to ourselves and to others, rather than a burden, or inconvenience.
