Portugal to Canada

My family originally emigrated from Portugal. My parents and so on were born in Portugal. But even though my parents were born in Portugal, they came to Canada when they were very young. My mom was 6, and my dad was 2. Because of this my parents are very much Canadianized.

My grandparents came to Canada without a lot of money, because work in Portugal was very slow. When my mom’s parents came here, my grandma was pregnant with my uncle and she was due any day, my uncle could have been born in the air over the Atlantic Ocean. But he was born a week after landing on Canadian soil.

My grandparents moved to Canada to have a better life, for themselves and for their kids. One of my grandfathers was a construction worker back in Portugal, and the other was a mechanic. But the money that you make in Portugal is not as much as you would get here in Canada. And back in Portugal my grandma’s didn’t work. In Portugal if you’re not a stay-at-home mom, you were looked at in a different way. But when they came to Canada, living expenses were more, and because my grandpa’s had to go look for a job, plus they had to support their families and pay house bills, my grandma’s had to work. My dad’s mom became a doctor assistant at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, and my mom’s mom became a house cleaner. My grandparents did very well for themselves. Very quickly they became stable and eventually had the money to get the things they wanted; a bigger house, a nicer car ect.

I look at my grandparents, and I don’t know how they did it. Just pack up everything and move to a completely different country where they don’t even speak the language. It must have been so touch for them. For anyone actually; anyone who has had to make such a huge change to their life. I’m not sure if I could do that myself. It’s like packing up all my stuff and moving to China. I would be way too scared, I couldn’t do it. But I give credit to those who can, and they should pat themselves on their back for being so brave. Good for you!

More like a sister

When I was in elementary school I always saw this girl walking in the halls. She was 2 years older than me. I knew who she was but I never really spoke to her. Her brother and my brother were; and still care best friends. Then high school came around and again I use to see her everywhere. Then in grade 10 she ended up being in my math class and sat right behind me. Because we knew who we were, she used to bug me in math class. She used to tell her friends that I was her brothers, friends, sister. And because I was very quiet in high school I didn’t really respond back to her.

When I was in grade 11, she had graduated already. And I was Amanda-free for about 2 years! Then you will never believe it. I then came to Sheridan to take the Advertising program, and in my first year, second semester I saw her in one of my class! We were in the same program! Can you believe that! All throughout high school I thought this chick was so weird! And now she’s in my program. Well believe it or not, during that second semester we became very close. We started taking the bus together and started working on project together. Within those few months we became best friends! Then the summer came around and we saw each other a lot! At least 3-4 times a week, we did a lot together.

Rihanna Concert!

Getting ready for Rihanna!

After hanging out with her, I noticed we are the same person, and we have so many things in common. But we will have our fights. She’s like the sister I never had, we actually do everything together. The most recent thing we did together was go to the Rihanna Concert in Toronto at the ACC on March. 18^th. I had gotten 2 Floor seat tickets for my birthday and Christmas from my uncle and aunt. And what I did was, we bought valentines gifts for each other, and inside the card I put a Rihanna ticket. She loves Rihanna so much that she actually started crying when she opened the card. She was so exited

Canada Day With my Bestie!

I love Amanda with all my heart, and I would never let anyone hurt her, she is actually part of my family. And I could never imagine my life without her in it, because she’s a big part of it.

Cooper

My family has always loved dogs, and I myself have grown up always having a pet. I was 4 years old when we got our first dog Trixie, and when she got sick at the age is 15 and we had to put her down, we were devastated. The house wasn’t the same without her. It wasn’t the same having a member of the family come and meet you at the front door every day. We went about 2 years without having that extra family member.   My family missed having that extra family member, so when we were ready, we went out to find that extra family member; and that’s when Cooper came into the picture. Cooper is a mix of a Golden Retriever and a Poodle, he’s called a Golden-Doodle. He is so sweet and so loving; he wouldn’t even hurt a fly, my family and I are convinced that he is a big scaredy-cat. I had to baby sit my little cousin a few times who was only a few months old at the time. This was before Anthony would crawl, we just had him lying on the floor on the carpet, and Cooper would lay right beside him. It looked like Cooper was protecting him. It was the cutest thing. When Anthony was a little older, he would crawl near Cooper, and Cooper would get scared and get up from where he was and move to another place of the house. It was really funny because it’s like Anthony knew that Cooper didn’t like Anthony crawling around him, so Anthony would follow Cooper everywhere he went. And every time, Cooper would get up, put his tail between his legs, and move somewhere else. It was funny to watch, but I’m sure Cooper didn’t find it very funny.

Cooper just had his 2^nd birthday in February, so he is very young. But I know one day (hopefully in many years), it will be very hard for my family when Cooper passes away because he is such a big part of my family. But it’s very early to be thinking about that, we just enjoy every moment we have with him.