COMS 4501A
Home is Far Away
"I feel like I no longer have a home according to the traditional definition,
I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere."
A story about one of the international students who travelled 9,380km from Guangzhou to Ottawa:
This is already Hu Zhen's last year of university and the fifth year she spent in Canada. In my perspective, she is one of the most outstanding, confident girls I have met. She is such a hard-working student who secured four years' scholarship in university and successfully completed the Co-op work terms as an international student. Being her close friend, I subconsciously assumed that she had decided to settle down in Ottawa and continue with her career. However, after having a close conversation with her on the topic of home, I surprisingly realized she shares many of the confusion, anxiety about her identity as I do. What does home mean to someone who had sailed so far away from her originality, both physically and spiritually?
The food, the people, the cigarette smell mixed with the humid air during the summer nights, and my favourite breakfast store just around the corner of my neighbourhood.
Life in Ottawa is more tranquil.I go to work, do some fitness, and then I go to bed, living almost a programatic life during the pandemic. However, I know this city has its own kind of beauty, especially during the fall.
If the life in Ottawa is a cup of water, then the life in GuangZhou is more like a cup of whiskey.
After many years of travelling back and forth, I no longer have that sense of belonging towards GuangZhou. However, on the other hand, the western cultural boundary also made me hard to assimilate myself into somewhere comfortable.
Somehow, I'm like that unknown flower I caught. (the picture shown beside) I am still floating by the wind and searching for a soil to land on, to grow into a plant. I feel like I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn.
