It's a lot like this, really:
We are all Calvin in this moment. In the end, screaming at something that will not change only makes you tired and upset, so might as well channel those emotions into something you can benefit from - if you're already in pain, get a reward from it, you know? I can make up for lost time with my wife once we are reunited, but with one's parents it's not quite the same especially as they get older. But then again, one of the things we accepted as our fate being immigrants was that seeing our loved ones in our countries of origin was never going to be a frequent affair either.
As an aside, I have been doing some.....'enhanced studying' as part of all this free time I have to prepare for the citizenship test; go down some rabbit holes for topics that also talk about the not-so-great things Canada has done to its residents in past. One of those things was the racism-rooted 'head tax' for Chinese immigrants (who helped build the railway that spans Canada), with the cost being so exorbitant that the immigrants couldn't ever afford going back to see their loved ones in China again.
This Father's day, a group of people from the Chinese community in the GTA area sought to honour these unknown, unsung pioneers by going to clean and maintain their gravestones. These men - fathers, husbands, uncles - died away from their families in an unknown land trying to build a better life in a time where even travel was a risky, arduous affair even when possible.
Times are tough, but this too shall pass and we, as immigrants on the final leg of this journey would do well to remember the thousands of footsteps on the same path as us who endured so much more for far fewer rights and privileges that we enjoy today thanks to both science and equality.
