Narratives of Place – January 20

    I was born in Regina Saskatchewan, I grew up in the city but I did spend a lot of time out at the family farm. I have 2 places I would consider home, one is the family farm and the second would be the mountains. The farm is about 15 minutes out of the city and I spent almost every weekend out there and made so many memories with the family. We have “family reunions” every couple of years and we have a huge game of hide and seek across the whole farm. There was one year where me and my cousin hid right in front of the bushes and my family spent a good 10-15 minutes walking around us and weren’t able to find us, we were in plain sight. This story is one of my favorite memories I have of the farm. The farm is where the family gets together and no one judges each other on who we are or how we act.

           Although I have grown up in the prairies, I haven’t fully felt like it is my home, but whenever I go on a trip up to the mountains, I feel at home. I feel so calm whenever I see them, just being around them makes me so happy. My family used to always take trips up to somewhere in the mountains. Between the ages of 1-5, we would go up to Canmore every summer to visit my Nana’s brother and we would always stay with them. Around the time we stopped staying with them, my mom had my little sister so we had to wait till she was old enough to go on the road trips as well. We went on many trips since then, but I would have to say a story that sticks out to me was when my boyfriend and I took a spontaneous trip from Lake Louise to Vancouver. That was the summer that B.C. was on fire, we drove right through some of the fires. Seeing something that I loved so much and brought me so much joy, on fire, it made me very upset. It was my boyfriend’s first time in B.C. and although he still found it so beautiful, it was hard to see them sometimes with the smoke around.

           My places have shaped me with all the memories I have made. They are places that truly make me so happy and I feel as if I have no worries while being there. I still go out to the farm every summer and plan to keep doing that. I have also planned to move to the mountains one day.