Life in Canada
Life in Canada was so odd to me.
I thought I was Canadian growing up until I went back home to Vietnam in 1995 and saw my cousins.
In Vietnam I felt Vietnamese, I finally felt the surge of feelings making feel Vietnamese like my older and younger cousins. Finally felt the unconditional bond that Vietnamese all share in 1995 while in Vietnam.
In Canada it was this feeling of ‘Canadianess’ and if you looked European you are in the right and had the better way to do everything and are nicer than the coloured people. People would allow the most nicest Canadians to delegate everything.
Canada was the opportunity to live abroad from the overpopulated ‘Old World’ and mix. Everyone has a place in society and everyone is able to have a wife and family and work. Everything is taken cared of in Canada.
I realized this early on but I felt out of place all the time.
Then when I finally got Vietnamese born in Canada friends that were mature, Tammy Nguyen and Tony Tie, then I realized we Vietnamese born in Canada have this problem.
We are treated Asian or Vietnamese at then end. We are treated in the most polar caricature way deep down in other people’s hearts. If you look deep enough in North America, we are treated pretty superficially at first even if we are born here. It is not a big deal but it is there at the start. We all know each other has a brain that can compute enough. No one is really from Saturn or Mars.
The idea for Canadians is that you are supposed to mix and get along with the Canadians as your coloured culture is so different that it may impede with the Canadian flow.
But as I grew up more and learned about my culture, I learned about alternative viewpoints, countering viewpoints and dynamism in the World.
The closer you are to Toronto, then people ease with the polarized caricature as everyone is mostly coloured and we are all just trying to pass through the day trying get better and better to live good but not that intense like in high school. Kind of laxed but always learning to get ahead and feel good.
Then I realized the problem with living in Canada for me as I am South Vietnamese from both my Southern Vietnamese parents. People actually think in the most negative Western caricature all the time including other Vietnamese. People are kind of looking out for their own groups in multicultural Canada as this is normal. Tribal mentality is real. Vietnamese even hate other Vietnamese. Depending on ‘whatever’, some Vietnamese also get along with Vietnamese and build up.
I got excluded most of the time because I was South Vietnamese at the end.
I ended up doing the jobs no one wanted most of the time.
I had my Vietnamese staple jobs available I think but never really tried to work in them for some reason.
By 35 years old, I made the decision to just live life and work as a teacher or a nurse.
Gave up from accumulating and lived to serve. I volunteered in a Cancer Centre and then my whole world changed.
Then God lead me back home to doing computer programming again like I wanted when I was in grade 6.
Then I learned to live comfortably in Canada in the best possible way. I learned from Ben Cybulski and his family how to live. I would stay in my study and develop things I want, work doing computers somehow and do projects with Ben and the worldwide team to stay active and busy for life till I am gone from this Earth and hopefully reincarnate as I am Buddhist. The old practical way in the 1500 AD before Columbus.
And all of this is really is in your genes. It is intuition. By staying good and out of trouble. This pathway is fool proof with some of the highest rewards possible.
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So basically I went off track all this time.
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In grade 9, I decided to do something else instead of computers and it messed up my life kind of.
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If I lived true to myself and did what I wanted, I would have made friends in computers online or in real life outside school and outside work so I could grow.
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But I made my Vietnamese born in Canada friends now, Tammy Nguyen and Tony Tie. Did I experience what they experience growing up?
It seems we all think on a similar wavelength growing up here.
Is there more to this??? Am I speaking only for myself?
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But when we get passed the stereotyping and grow up and old, we realize that we are all changing to become more ‘Canadian’.
How we think daily changes. Regular stops to the coffee shop is normal.
We become very Canadian in our lives.
When we hit 40+, we think more and more Canadian even if our skin is yellow/brown.
We long for nature and the wilderness??? The Arctic cold and wind feels great.
Something to do with the location and climate …
I love salmon.
Moving up North feels good. It feels like an adventure.
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But what do people in Eurasia feel about Canadians or Vietnamese born in Canada???
Let’s take a look later.