Fly, Bird

With the ring of the school bell, the anthem of Canada begins to play on the speaker as it does every morning. A classroom full of young lined up students wearing crisp burgundy knit vests and plaid bottoms fills with the chorus of perfectly in-sync melody. One girl stands there, with the rest, eyes forward, mouth moving in sync everyone else. While she sings of northern skies and glowing hearts, she thinks of a country that is starting to accept her. She thinks of hope and light. She thinks of a community pieced together with a million intertwining strands from across the world. She thinks of her country as a magnificent rainbow of cultural diversity built from a mosaic of a million different heritages. And she sings the anthem with pride, with soaring wings and a heart full of change.