I was 8 years old when I immigrated to Canada from the Philippines.
Contrary to popular belief – no, it was not a hard transition.
And no, I did not have a difficult time adjusting and adapting to the new space that I was forcefully put in by my parents.
In the moment, I was excited to experience new things and meet new faces. I grew up in East Vancouver and met many people in the same situation as me; I met many people who looked like me. I thought, great, Canada isn’t so bad after all.
In that very moment, I felt welcomed. I felt normal.
Fast forward 4 years, I was 12 years old and moving to Secondary School. I was a good kid. I went to school, handled my business, went home and worked on my homework. Simply put, my parents were very traditional and strict; they did not allow me to hang around with random groups of people after school. Naturally, I spent most of my days consuming and watching TV shows. Growing up, I loved watching Hannah Montana, Lizzie McGuire and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody on Disney. It was then I started to realize that I did not look like the kids I was watching on TV. These kids were predominantly white, had blue eyes, and blonde hair. Me, on the other hand, I had dark skin, brown eyes and black hair. I was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.
In that very moment, I felt different.
A moment that is heavily embedded in my mind is how my kind of people (asians) were represented in these TV shows. They had heavy accents, continued to engage in Asian traditions as “eating rice” and “eating with chopsticks” and the like. What struck me at the time was the mere fact that this did not represent who I was. I spoke great English and I had the occasional burger. Rice was not the only thing I ate.
In that very moment, I felt very different.
It's Ciara 