Top 10 cities I visited

When the application to move to Canada had finally been accepted, we were quite the happy bunch. I remember visiting my grandmother with the news and she claimed it was the first time in 2 years she had seen me smile.

It wasn’t so much as moving out of Bangladesh or into a western country that appealed to me. It was more of a closure to the pain of the past few years – having lost my father to cancer, my grandfather to alzheimer’s desease, and my mother’s ongoing struggle to help raise 3 children on her own. Moving to Calgary was in essense moving onto a new life. As I look back to the move which brought both excitement and apprehension for my family, it became a turning point in my life with new hopes and challenges, and a deep yearning for spirituality.

Calgary to this day is a very livable city (bar the brisk -30C winters!) with very friendly people and a high standard of living. However, it was coming across people of various backgrounds and races – which I was exposed to especially during my university years – that I began to develop a unique identity and set of values. Even though I was no stranger to cultural variances, for the first time I saw cohesiveness and cooperation which provided the foundation for a nation’s development. This is what appealed to me mostly about Calgary, and Canada in general – the idea of a mozaic as opposed to a melting pot, where unique identities and values is not only encouraged, but becomes indispensable for communities to form bonds and cooperate to create a more dynamic, intelligent, and responsible society. Qualities that are unfortunately lacking these days throughout most of the world.

As I cultivated my cultural identity and what it had to offer, I realized the importance of perseverence no matter how bad things appeared. I could not have survived without the friendships, advise, and solace of my friends, both in finding myself as well as in making sense of the violence and pain taking over the world in recent years. Instead of losing hope both in the world and in my own shortcomings, I was able to identify areas I can help make a difference. Getting involved with student organizations, troubled youth, the community and charities was not only a way to give back for all the opportunities I was blessed with, it taught me a great deal about myself and the society we live in.