The Secret of an Immigrant  
By Pablo Villanueva 

Respect is the key to success out in the real world. Being an immigrant or refugee is not easy. Moving from one place to another is not easy. The struggle that you have to go through is one of the hardest things that you might encounter in your life. The Canadian lifestyle is very different to the one you may be used to. Back where my parents are from in Guatemala there are street markets and it is always warm outside. Here it’s cold and warm and there are no street markets but there are grocery stores. You have to wear a hat, mitts, jacket and boots when it is cold outside and there is snow on the ground. Adapting to the weather, not knowing where to go, not knowing anyone, not knowing if you made the right choice. There are many things that run in someone’s mind when they leave their country to move to a different one.

One thing that hurt me the most growing up was being discriminated against by others because I was either Hispanic or just because I was an Immigrant. As a kid that brought me down, but I found ways to work around it. What I did was ignore them and I set myself one goal—no matter what they said of me, I was always going to work hard, I was going to give it all I had, and I was never going to give up. That has made me into who I am today. When you move you start all over again; you get the opportunity to become someone better. Moving to Canada was the right choice for my parents to make. Living here I have been very lucky: I have travelled the world for free, we have a pretty good education system, I’ve met amazing people, and I have a beautiful family and home where it all starts. These things and other opportunities happened for one reason, that reason being respect. As an immigrant I’ve learnt that respect is the most powerful virtue one can have. The way I get treated for being an immigrant or because of my race has made me open my eyes and become a better person. It has shown me that for me to succeed I have to simply work hard, show respect, and most importantly just be myself. Don’t listen to the negative comments people may say; it’s hard but prove to yourself that you’re better than that. Living here also has made me realize how lucky we truly are. Here I have been involved in different activities such as cadets, dancing, swimming, school sports, karate, to name a few. There are opportunities here that you might not have had where you came from. Take advantage of those opportunities—join social clubs, sign up for sports teams, take dance classes or swimming classes, snowboarding, tubing, skiing, go for a jog, a walk, or a bike ride. You only get to be a kid once, live and be happy with what you have, because even though it is tough at times, there is a reason why you moved here. I know it is scary to start all over again because I also went through it, but we have to be strong and prove to ourselves that we can succeed; nothing is impossible.