Encounters with Canada!

     When my school counselor first gave me the "Encounters with Canada" pamphlet, I could not have been happier! I have a passion for traveling, so I jump on every chance I have to visit different places! Spending a week speaking English in Ottawa sounded thrilling! As I was going through the pamphlet, I stumble upon this; "Encounters has changed my life". I thought that they were really trying to hard to sell the program. How can a week of camp change your life? I've been to camp before, made friends, told them i'd see them again, but never did. I couldn't understand this quote until Sunday when I left Ottawa after one of the best experience of my life. Encounters has changed my life. It has. It sounds stupid but I feel like a totally different person. One thing that marked me a lot was how the people wouldn't judge me. Nobody judged, nobody was judge. Nobody had time to be anyone else but themselves. Imagine a week without being judge for how you dress, your interest, your language, your weight, for having a profile on every social media account & for making videos. Right off, it felt like paradise. I could be myself and talk about what I love without having people rolling their eyes or ignoring me. It felt like Twitter but with real people. They had many acronyms on the wall such as "T4BU".

 I couldn't figure it out until someone told us it meant "Thanks for being you!". 

     If you don't know what "Encounters with Canada" is, let me talk to you about it. It's a program with weekly thematic (I attended the Journalism and Communications). You get to spend a week in the country's capital and learn more about your country and the theme you chose. I got the opportunity to visit Radio-Canada, CBC radio, the civilization museum and much more! 

    Before this trip, I felt so American. I traveled more in the United States than my own country! I've always idolize the states. Who doesn't? Meeting teens from all over the country who I could easily connect to makes me want to travel all over Canada. I realized that only people from my town were jerks and that I shouldn't blame the whole country for it! I learned so many facts about my country and the different provinces and territories that I didn't even learn at school. My obsession with America is still there but now i'm proud to call myself a Canadian and a Quebecer. In my opinion, Quebec isn't the worst province anymore. To see everyone loving Quebec for it's culture, it's poutine and it's French made me proud once more. When someone would tell me they want to learn French or when they would try to speak it, I felt happy. I really adored my week. Even though the nights were cold, the showers were freezing, my socks were always soak because of the bathroom floor and the food was barely edible, it has been the best week of my life so far. I made some great friendships! Even though over 5,000 km separates me from them, there's a part of me knowing that I'll see them again. I feel like a better person, a happier human being. I want to be more involved and learn more about my beautiful country. I want to continue my video making without being made fun of. Encounters is the reason why I made this blog. I had the idea months ago. I was scared of people finding it. Now, I realized that I really don't care. I want to do what I love. I want to do what I want. Even with society judging me. Encounters made me open my eyes that I was missing out on so much.