How Have I Come To Be Here?

I know the basics of my father’s family history, but not my mother’s. My dad’s parents moved to Alberta from Holland. My oma was a school teacher, and my opa owned a sheet-metal company. They lived on the same acreage outside of Red Deer for 40 years. When my dad was 16, he met my mother at McDonald’s where they both worked. A year later, I was born. My parents had a couple of other children after me and were separated many times. I had moved 21 times with my mother between various small towns all over Alberta, and twice more after my dad took me in, though we stayed in Red Deer.

Of course, that's just a brief summary of how I came to be "here" physically. However, it is worth noting that I am the only child of my parents' 4 biological children that managed to get into college, and what a journey that was! I spent 2 years after graduating from Lindsay Thurber High School trying to figure out what direction I wanted my life to go, before settling on education. Even after I did decide, and after I had done the paperwork and started taking classes, I spent another year and a half trying to understand why I chose the path I did, realizing that simply choosing the path would not suffice.

School has never been easy for me, and even though most of my teachers have called me "brilliant" and "full of potential,"  my average grade through my entire school journey has orbited around C's and D's. My schoolwork habits have only slightly improved over ~17 years of school and counting. It would seem odd, then, that my professional title of choice would be "educator."

My aunt, who works as a psychologist, once told me that most young adults study psychology primarily to understand themselves first. That may be the underlying reason for my choosing this career path; I wish to learn how to excel at learning first and foremost. I feel that if I can accomplish this, given my history, I will gain a special ability to aid future struggling students to overcome the obstacles I once faced. That is my story.

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Why is a person's history important?

A person's history explains how a person came to become the man/woman/boy/girl they are in the present; it also serves as a strong predictor of the person he/she will evolve into. Just as my struggles motivated me to improve myself so I can show future student how to do the same, other people, no matter who, will use their past to determine who they wish to be and understand who they are now.

First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in North America have a special relationship to their history. Because many FNMI people deeply value tradition and heritage, an Aboriginal person's cultural identity may be ingrained into them from the day they are born. If the child develops and maintains a strong enough relationship with their culture while growing up, it is likely the culture will remain part of their identity for the rest of their life, even through their career and at home with a new family. There are Many cases where FNMI people have grown up and pursued a life in which they are advocates and/or representatives of the culture they were brought up in. Perhaps they represent a political party that focuses on Aboriginal rights, or they could work in a college, teaching students about First Nations, Metis or Inuit history and culture. Such people tend to have a strong sense of purpose and belonging because they are understanding of the extent to which the past shapes their lives.