The Complications of being Canadian

What can I say?  Honestly I should talk about dating – I am the QUEEN of serial dating – and THAT is complicated… the dating… the names… the  moving around….No, honestly it is super complicated!   My friends (whom I adore) have reverted to calling them (the guys I date) by their profession and laugh at me when I “name the puppy”.

But instead, I’m going to talk about the 2010 Olympics and being Canadian (and I’m going to try and links and stuff – so that makes this post even more complicated. . . just cause I can write by NO MEANS does that mean I know how to do all this kinda stuff!) (Time lapse an hour as I try and figure this out… going to have to call that computer guy I dated so he can tell me how to do this… until then, I’ll carry on…)

The biggest problem is that Canadians don’t define themselves by who we are – we define ourselves by who we are not.  We are not American – we are Canadian…. but really – we don’t know what we mean by that.  (I even tried to google and bing answers… and no one had a good definition!  So, here is my attempt google and bing!  PICK ME!!)  No offense, but its a hard question to answer – because we aren’t overtly loud, we don’t talk about being proudly Canadian a lot, and we don’t shout it from roof tops.  But we are a PROUD nation.  Ask any one of us – we’ll tell ya.  But, its still complicated to be asked – its hard to define.

And then there is the Olympics.  Its like a pride for Nation and home takes over, and its okay to scream it from rooftops, to sing our National Anthym (watch that – that is pride – an ENTIRE ARENA SINGING O CANADA… we rock), and be proud, talk about our FIRST GOLD on home ground, and know that EVERYONE is talking about it at the same time.

In short – we get to act “American”, and that is a huge compliment to you guys south of the 49th parallel. Because I’m jelouse of your “Say it Out Loud” patriotism.  The way you support all sports at all levels – hell I’ve seen more people at one of your highschool football games, then at a University championship basketball game.  It’s just not the same up here – and as I did my masters “down there”, I’ve felt the difference… and you guys win!

And here is why its complicated:  I love being Canadian.  To me, its the most amazing thing in the world.  There are so many things to be proud of:  the world’s best trained military (yup, American come here all the time to get training) -including our “dark knights” who no one talks about. . . but they are just as good as the British MI6!  We have an economy that countries around the world are in envy off – and a banking system that other countries are looking to adopt (cause we did it right the first time), we are selfless (especially at times of war), we are energy concious, we are green – and trying to get greener, we have amazing geography, beautiful country, we are active, and yes… like the Beach Boys said “they keep their boyfriends warm at night” (read, we’re super sexy too!!).  We’re crazy appologetic if we bump into someone on the street, and we’re super friendly.  We’re also SUPER concious of where we come from – especially here in Toronto.  You can start a conversation with people anywhere in Toronto, and within the first hour of convo, people will say something to the effect of “Well, you’re Canadian, but what’s your background”… and the funny part we all know (I for example am a mix of Irish, French and Welsh… which just makes me my OWN WORST ENEMY).

These are the things I’m proud of – but I’m polling my friends to find out what they are proud off – I’m sure the list will grow! Ops – almost forgot Health Care . . . But last night – WOW!

It was amazing – a Canadian boy (good looking to boot!!) showing that Golden smile, and all he wanted to do was find his family and share the moment with them.  Alex was already talking about his brother with tears in his eyes, only minutes after finding out he was reciving the Gold.

That was something to be proud of.  And I was calling friends, family – reciving texts and updating my status on Facebook – I would have even tweeted if I could figure out my password…  And the streets in Vancouver were filled with people – tears flowing as freely as the beer, and you could feel it in your heart.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get sick of seeing it repeated over and over again!  And today – watching the crowds of Canadians cheering, waving their flags – its amazing.  And makes me wish I was there.  That’s what I mean, we’re a quite group – but a few times in our lifetime we get to be truely patriotic – scream it out loud – be truely proud of our cold (well, except in Vancouver this year) winters, our great way of living, our history and our culture.  YEAH US. But like the commercials running – we don’t want to take too much away from anyone else.

So, we congradulate all the Olympic winners!  See… complicated, we’re happy for everyone… but we SUPER happy for us!  But … that being said… we’ll see you at the Podium when our Canadian Women and Men’s Hockey team takes the Gold… we’ll see you there! Its a date!

BTW – we have a new national anthym for the olympics… its called “I Believe“… check it out… cause we do!
Oh… and did you notice… I figured out the links “All on my own”!

Filed under: "It's Complicated" by Tee
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