I just got back from a week in British Columbia.
Prior to leaving, I told people I was going "home", but the reality is that BC no longer feels like home to me. True, it is where I graduated high school and attended university, and it is where 90% of my family resides. All the same, it does not feel like home to me. I guess the best way to describe it is as 'a place I used to live'.
I guess I don't really have any place in particular that I truly think of as home, with the possible exception of Canada itself. I was born in Saskatchewan, but have not spent any meaningful amount of time there since I was ten. I spent six years in the United States, but as a Canadian who was never anything more than a temporary migrant, I lack the connection with America that is so important to other immigrants. Since graduating from high school, I have split my time between BC and Ontario - I am on the 5th year of my current stint in Ontario - but I really don't have deep roots in either province.
There are times when I wish I did have a sense of home. Sometimes I envy people who have a sense of belonging to a particular place, but other times I am happy to be unencumbered. In a way, it allows me to consider the world to be my home - and I think I prefer it that way.
