Reflective Essay: From My Migration To Canada

At the age of 11, I move from California to Toronto. The move brought many hardships that still have an impact to this day. Moving meant not being able to see my lifelong best friend daily and also resulted in not having a relationship with my father, until recently. This also meant having to leave the only place I knew, and familiarizing myself with new scenery, new street names and a new house. Not only did I leave the town I grew up in, but I left what I feel was a better educational system. Growing up, I attended Stratford School, which I believe set me on the right path in terms of how I thought of education. Although the curriculum was advanced and the instruction strict, I was taught to have high expectations and to always improve myself, values I subconsciously live by to this day.

This school and the way it ran shocked me at first, and still shocks me to this day. Along with this, the educational standards offered at both schools were nowhere near comparable. What I did not realize was I was so focused on the emotional baggage that came with the move, I had let it affect my grades. At Stratford, I had maintained high 80’s and 90’s across my report cards and I had now started to let that slip away from me. Once I realized that the move had affected my education, I changed my ways at school very quickly, by changing my study habits and how seriously I took my education. I tapped back to the values that were instilled into me at a young age, to have high expectations for myself and my educational goals. What also followed shortly after, was my appreciation of being able to receive an education and to this day I am excited to get to school everyday because I will be able to learn something