My story of how I came to Canada and what this country means to me today.
That ‘s right… Canada was not my dream. It may be weird to hear it, but my dream was not Canada. In the midst of what I was living in my country, I had no interest in emigrating to another place; I had my partner, my family, friends, work and studied History at one of the best universities in Colombia.
I arrived in Canada at the end of September 2020 in the province of Québec through family sponsorship thanks to my mother and her husband. (Sponsorship can be made by those who are Permanent Residents or Citizens over 18 years of age to their parents, children or partner).
In the middle of the pandemic I had to spend 2 weeks in quarantine without going out. It was an extreme change of lifestyle, I had never left Colombia and didn’t know any other place other than my country of origin. I felt awe, happiness, anxiety, sadness and emptiness to leave everything behind. And by that time, the fall breeze was blowing.
Days after I decided to start an Instagram account: @amarilla.en.canada, as a therapy to show my new life in the country of Maple’s leaf.
Once I finished my quarantine, I embarked on a trip to the city of Toronto. At the time I didn’t know it, because my goal was to visit my family and get to know the largest city in Canada.
And guess what? I started working the next day as a Cleaner. I couldn’t believe that as soon as I could start doing it, and on the other hand I was afraid to get out of my comfort zone since I had never worked in cleaning.
Starting from scratch in this new city changed my life completely. I found new friends, I dared to practice my English and face situations completely alone: opening a bank account, crossing the city without knowing it, trying to express myself with the language without the translator, learning the new customs, etc. More and more I realized how important it is to learn English or French from a young age.
With the months and thanks to my blog on Instagram I find a new job that brought with it many good experiences, knowledge, and at the same time not so good ones. I can tell you that everything I experienced there helped me grow as a person, and the latter is something you will face once you embark on this journey. The new circumstances will make you more humble and grow a lot on a personal level. Not everything will be rosy, but it will be worth it.
It’s like everything, you know? You will meet incredible people on your way, people who will help you without expecting anything in return, you will also meet people who do not and you will probably live situations that will make you want to give up this dream. But I can tell you from my own experience that everything, absolutely everything will have its reward: Finding economic stability, security, tranquility, being able to face being yourself without fear of being judged, starting over from scratch without fear of what they will say.
Since June I began to prepare myself to become an Educational Consultant to help all those who dream of Studying in Canada. Today I practice in this way and continue to work in the immigration sector to Canada.
And if you already know me, you know what I always say: Emigrating to Canada is not easy, neither quick nor economical. All this is a matter of time, planning and investment. And you can, of course you can.
With love
Cami – Yellow in Canada
