Thursday, May 13, 2010

20 years in Toronto

Today is the 20th anniversary of our arrival in Canada.How time flies!I still remember the day we left.Family and friends were at the old Subang Airport to see us off.Shortly after the plane took off I fell asleep and woke up not long after feeling an enormous sense of trepidaton.Justifiably so.The first few years was tough for me in particular as I could not get a job. My wife got a job after a few months and the children as expected assimilated like duck to water.Not that I was unemployed. I worked as a commision sales rep for a magazine but a proper job eluded me for a few years.We managed to bring up our children well and they thrived under the Canadian environment.The children were cognizant that we were going through this process of living in a new country.My daugther wrote in a school essay (she was 14 or 15 at that time)referencing Hilary Clinton's book that "it takes a village" to bring up a child and she was growing up without the benefit of her "village" Somehow we managed well.Fast forward 20 years.Our two children are successful professionals.My wife has a good job and I am running my own business,stress free.We are healthy and enjoying life to its fullest. We are a very close knit family and our children ,although they are very successfull professionally,they are first and foremost 2 very decent persons and for this my wife and I can give ourselves a pat on our backs!