Egzona Duraj’s Story, Canada
Coming To Canada*
by Egzona Duraj
Coming from Bosnia to Canada was really hard for me. It was really hard for me to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina because I had to leave my friends behind. I remember my family and I preparing our luggage for our journey to Canada. We were sad to be leaving our home country, but at the same time, we were also excited. We said goodbye to our friends, and then we went to the airport. When we went on the plane, we were scared, at first, because we had never been on a plane before. Finally, we arrived to Toronto where we took a plane to Windsor, Ontario.
When we arrived to Windsor, it was really dark and we were tired. So, we went to a hotel and slept immediately. The next day, we went for a walk and we were surprised by the huge parks that Windsor had. After a month of staying at a hotel, we moved into our new house, which we liked. Some time went by and my family and I started going to school. The first day at school with my sister was scary, because there were a lot of different people and different methods of teaching that we were not exposed to before. It has been amazingly good to be living here. From my experience being a newcomer, I would say to other newcomers that Canada gives an opportunity to young people to get well educated and get a good job.
Being in Canada has also allowed me to express myself artistically.
Credit:
These stories have been published in the book entitled “Our World: A Collection of Works by Windsor Essex Newcomer Youth”.
In January 2014 Library Settlement Partnerships (LSP) contacted various local newcomer youth service providers, in order to introduce newcomer youth to the world of self-publishing. Newcomer youth from diverse countries of origin welcomed the idea and soon came together to create their personal submissions in a publication that combined their unique life experiences and insights through short stories and visual arts.
(*page 3 of the book)
