I Am Canadian

I am Canadian because I spend my winters at the rink. Watching hockey and freeze my butt off to support the team. I play in the snow and build giant snowmen with dad and Chase; so big that the top snowball is almost impossible to put on. I began skidooing at a very young age and flying behind the skidoo on a saucer. Sometimes driving and flinging my friends into vehicles or bouncing them along with me on the skidoo. The snow in Canada is so deep and fluffy that you rarely get very hurt if you crash. Once Chase was driving and I was on the saucer behind; my dog was run over by the skidoo and she wasn’t even phased. Dixie just popped right out of the snow and kept running after us. Tobogganing on my birthday was always a tradition. My whole family would come out to our farm to join us. There may be many of us because the family is so big. The best sled for the round hill was the inner tube of a tractor tire, you could keep going for a long, long way on that. All the winter sleep overs at Grandma Fouhy’s with Chase, Courtney and Caitlyn had time spent outside building huge snow forts in the piles of snow Grandpa had made while plowing the road. We would crawl through the snow digging tunnels.They would take so long to build that by the time we had finished we wouldn’t even want to stay out to enjoy them.

In  the spring after there wasn’t snow for forts we would go to the bail castles. Running through the high tunnels created by the stacks of round bales. Also in spring the calves come. We go out into the cold and what’s left of the snow to help the mothers give birth. I will never forget the time when I was just a little kid and we had to take a cow to the vet for a see section. It was so dramatic to me at the time, it seemed like a sea of blood was flowing out of the incision. With calving and spring on our farm meant work. We would have to wrangle the calves in the field, give them their needles and tag them. My job was always the wrangling and holding them down. As spring turned to summer the calves and cows would need to be moved to the pasture for food purposes. Before we could move them, the calves would need to be branded and given more needles, and the cows would need needles too. This takes about a day of work, with help from many kind neighbours. When I was old enough to do my part I learned how to give needles as gently as I could. A valuable lesson for a Canadian farm girl. Next in the spring comes seeding. Dad and Grandpa do this while the women take lunches to them out in the field. Summer is very short for a Canadian girl, much shorter than winter. Usually I hang out at the farm, loving the wide open spaces and gorgeous scenery. I play with my animals, occasionally check the cows down by the river with dad and ride my horses. When I was younger I had a feisty little pony named Jada. She constantly wanted to buck you off. Especially Chase, who refused to use a saddle. When Jada wanted him off she jumped up, Chase flew up and landed on her neck. She just stopped and didn't try again.

Before you know it in Canada winter is just around the corner. The beautiful orange, yellow and red autumn leaves are covering the ground and harvest is in full swing. My dad and Grandpa spend very long hours in the combine, trying to get harvest over with before snow fall. The kids go back to school in fall, but being in the tiny school I am in they are lenient with you missing to help out at home. The teachers at my school understand the importance of helping our families on the farm. My school is very hard for some people to comprehend. They can not imagine having school with the kindergartens all the way up to grade 12. Many small communities travel to one centre to go to school around here. Even with all the communities there are only about 180 students. I may not have too many opportunities at my school, there may not be huge parties and a large choice for friends. But I really enjoy it. It is nice to feel at home and relaxed at school. I enjoy knowing every student and the closeness of my class because its always just us. My life in Canada has taught me to be accepting of other people because I found out how it feels when people aren`t. I have learned from my amazing family to be kind and show love to the people that you love. Canada has shaped me to love my space and alone time. Big cities are not the place to be, I couldn’t survive there now. Not since I am so used to what I have here. Canada has given me freedom, taught me to be kind, to love the ones I have and to not judge others. Canada has shaped me to be the person I am today and that makes me proud.