I had to actively seek ways to make my new environment more comfortable. No longer could I rely on mom and dad to create the feeling of home, with its smells and artifacts. Besides the regular phone calls and emails, I maintained contact with my family through pictures. We would send each other photographs online and in letters, which helped me feel like my family was with me the whole time. I tried to recreate the home that my parents had back in Taiwan, with things I brought to hang on the wall and memorabilia from my childhood. Although I missed my mother's food, I found ways to eat familiar foods that helped me feel more secure and less homesick. Thinking about my parents started to motivate me to work even harder in school. Suddenly I wanted to impress them. As my English improved, so did my grades. I studied hard, which meant that I still struggled to make friends. I knew my parents missed me, too.
My parents have made tremendous sacrifices for me, although I did not realize it at the time. They spent a lot of money to send me abroad, paying for my education and my living expenses. I was too young to appreciate their work at the time, because I was still a teenager. Self-centered and relatively immature, I simply longed for the comforts of home and my old friends. During my senior year in high school, something happened. I met another foreign student who was younger than me. She was struggling to fit in and to learn English, and I could see so much of myself...
I became her friend and helped her to feel less alone. Meeting her made me think less of myself and more about other people, especially my parents. It dawned on me: my parents sacrificed some of their personal retirement money to help me go to the best school possible, enter the best possible career field, and experience living in a different part of the world. Their sacrifice meant -- and of course still means -- a lot to me.
However, I had to be mature enough to understand and appreciate what my parents did for me. Strength of character only comes from trials and challenges that are overcome. If it were not for my parents, I might have had an easier time in high school but would not have been as self-confident as I am now. I would certainly not be exposed to the wealth of experiences my family helped me to have after sending me to North America.
Ten years after I landed in Canada on my own I am able to think differently about my experiences and also about my who my parents are. Reflecting on the decade encourages me to aspire to achieve my goals. I have worked hard to succeed in school and have done the best I could. Although I still have a long way to go before starting my career, I have already laid the groundwork for the future. I owe it all to my parents. The shock of entering a foreign country without speaking a word of the language was transformed into a determination to make my parents proud of me, and I believe they are.
