Welcome to Junior Kindergarten

Yesterday I received an email from my son's new school (he starts JK in September) and I wasn't expecting much given that Covid has cancelled everything. The email said a welcome bag had been delivered to the families of new JK students and I was incredulous, I would have seen it already if it was true, right? Turns out they were that efficient and a bag was hanging at my front door.

As I got excited and took the bag to my bedroom to inspect, the more I saw, the smaller and bigger I felt, and I started crying. I cried and I cried, because I'm still an immigrant. I have been in this country for almost 13 years but I still am and will always be an immigrant. What the bag represented was a dream come true.

When I left my country I had only one thing in mind, a better future for my future kids. What this bag represented was 13 years of hard work, 13 years of being away from my family, 13 years of leaving my friends and everything I knew behind and taking a leap of a faith to a country I had never even visited!

In Latin America you don't get a welcome bag, you don't get books or scissors to have at home. In Latin America you get what you are able to pay for. At the start of school you get a list of things you will need to buy and if you don't have them then you won't have the same opportunities as the other kids. In Latin America you go to the best school you can afford and if you can't afford it then you go to public school from which succeeding is almost mission impossible. Here EVERY kid has a chance and every kid starts with the same opportunity.

The bag is perfect. It has everything for a growing kid going to school for the first time to practice and dream of what school would be. It had a pencil, glue, crayons, scissors, magnetic alphabet letters, an inflatable ball, and so many books!! I didn't have to go and buy anything, he wouldn't lack anything he needed, school would make certain of that. It doesn't matter he has all of it and has been practicing already. What matters is that his Canadian school is awesome and I'm looking forward to learning all about them.

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