Absolutely. Thank you for your question, sir.
I came to Canada when I was 12. I was born in Malaysia. My mom is Canadian and my dad is Malaysian.
When I first came here as a young person, there was a real enchantment with Canada as a project, as a nation. There were rights afforded to me here that would never happen in Malaysia. Especially for me as a queer woman, the reality of my life here is just so different, so much richer than what could be true, at least publicly, in Malaysia.
I had a big romantic idea of Canada for many years of my youth after I'd first moved here. When I was 15, a recruiter came to my high school and talked about the reserves and about how it was something you could do through university. I never wanted it to be my full career, but I think it combined with the ideas of adventure and of helping pay for school and opportunities for challenge and growth. A very big part of that was the sentimentality I had about the Canadian project, and to a degree a sense of nationalism about Canada. That's probably why I joined.