While I see being born in Canada as having been a positive thing, I’m also grateful that we moved to the United States when I was three.
Nothing at all against Canada, but when I look at the years that followed our immigration much of my good fortune would not have played out as it did had we not moved.
I’m a firm believer that opportunity is where you make it, but it’s hard not to consider the U.S. the “land of opportunity” for both my parents and myself.
I’m certain that things would have been fine staying in Canada, but the fact is our relocation set into motion events and choices that would ultimately impact every aspect of my life, from education, to career choice, and even whom I’d end up marrying.
Life would have turned out very different in Canada. Ultimately I’m quite pleased with the way things turned out here in the US.
Accompanying photo was taken at the Sydney, B.C. dock, awaiting the ferry that would take us to Anacortes, WA on the day we immigrated to the United States: September 10, 1960. Yep, that’s me in the window of the car. (Click on the photo for larger.)