Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Experience of being a minority


One year ago when I left my country for the first time I didn’t have any idea about being a minority. I am from Iran, an old country, full of historic buildings and memos. You can find lots of them at louvre and British museum People more recognize Iran by : Persian cats, Persian rugs, and also oil I should say.

When I arrived here at Canada for the first 5-6 month I was pretty busy with getting used to my new environment, where to buy grocery , how to rent a house, how to deal with my thesis and supervisor and above all how to deal with being so far away from my family.

I think it took me a year to settle down, look around my self and see what’s really happen. What did I miss? What did I get?
In Iran we celebrate the first day of spring (21st of March) as a new year. It was the first time in my life that I started my new year far far away from my family. When everyone is working on 21st of March and it doesn’t have any meaning to the most of the people around you, gradually you understand “I am a minority”.

Yes, I got that, it’s a strange feeling to be a minority. I am not nagging about this at all. All I try to do is just to explain this kind of feeling. Maybe it’s the same for all minorities, around the world but I believe when you migrate to another country with a different language and different customs you sense this feeling more strongly.

For me I learnt that everything is temporary like friends, the city you leave in, your job...
Every semester new people join or leave our small Iranian society. I am doing my best to learn how to enjoy every moment of my life. It doesn’t matter if my friends leave, I want to enjoy hanging with them right now. I should learn to be ready to leave at any time. It’s exciting in a way and I can say I like it.