Grieving Our Countries

Leaving Canada behind.

Like many people around the globe I am grieving a country that has fallen to divide, hate, and dishonesty. Pride in one’s home is an important aspect to life and should not be taken for granted. It took months before I realized that grief and loss can be felt for one’s nation. “True North Strong and Free”, would always shakily escape my clenched throat as I sang our national anthem. No matter how often I sang that beautiful melody, it would always instill this wave of patriotism over me. Thinking of this now, it is very cliché, but I would actually think of the sacrifices our families had made to fight, farm, and survive in Canada and I’d choke up.

Travelling was also a great opportunity to humbly brag about our beautiful diverse land, while showing evidence from pictures we had taken on our phones. Even with a lifetime of pride as my foundation, never in my darkest nightmares did I think our country would morph into this hateful dystopian mess.

When you no longer feel accepted in your own home, you’re scared for your children’s freedoms and futures, it’s an intense emotion that gnaws at your insides. You feel suffocated, alienated, and voiceless.

How do you stop it?

Protesting, signing petitions, and writing to politicians can only go so far before it feels pointless.

I feel for you fellow outcasts.

After an announcement was made that we would no longer be able to leave the country unless we complied, it triggered this wild animal inside us that felt caged and exposed.

We sold everything and left in the short window of opportunity we still had.

Since, we have met dozens of families from across the globe here in Mexico who also felt that they were vulnerable and needed to leave.

Although I do not speak all the languages to properly communicate, I see their faces. I know that face, those emotions.

They feel helpless, alone.

Unsure of what the future holds. And grieving a country lost.

I feel you.

We are all connected now. Forever bound by a tether of lost hopes, lands, and broken futures.

We leave family, friends, even pets behind, but ultimately, we’ve left a part of our identity.

This is all for the sake of freedom and a life that isn’t focused on fear.