Happy Thanksgiving

home•sick Pronunciation: \ˈhōm-ˌsik\Function: adjective, Meaning: longing for home and family while absent from them, home•sick•ness noun

Have you wondered why immigrants create a little Italy or China town? Are you embarrassed to admit that you actually feel miffed at their inability to depart from the lifestyles of their home countries? After all, what is wrong with the country to which they have moved? Didn’t they leave their homelands for a better life? How can they possible integrate into a new culture if they cling onto the past?

Living in England, as a Canadian, is not a drastic leap, but that still doesn’t stop me from missing some things that were a part of my everyday life. Most of all, it has made me more cognisant of how an immigrant must feel when they come to Canada. At least I am not dealing with a language barrier or a lack of family nearby. Still, it feels strange sometimes to be away from my good friends and my eldest son and the step kids, my house in the country, my long term job, and the stores where I would frequently shop. Suddenly, I can understand how challenging it must be for an immigrant that is trying to shop for food and can’t figure out what is a good deal and what is not. How painful it must be when they get on a bus and can’t understand why they ended up at the wrong stop. How strange it must feel when a holiday that was celebrated at home is not recognized in their new country. So if homesickness is the longing for home and family while absent from them, then one could appreciate that the remedy for this is to be with home and family. And since home and family can be many miles away, would it not be reasonable to expect that one would be entitled to replace it somehow, someway?