[Swift]

I became a Canadian citizen yesterday. When I first came to Canada over 20 years ago, I fell in love with the place and I was lucky enough to have a Canadian girlfriend who was big into Cancon so I learned a lot about the country culturally (I remember reading her copy of Douglas Coupland's Souvenir of Canada and learning about stubbies and Ookpiks) and also travelled all over, visiting 9 of the 10 provinces (I still haven't been to Manitoba) but over time as I lived and worked here, it just became a mundane home, losing its novelty.

So I thought getting my citizenship would sadly just be an administrative affair, getting it done to stave off any immigration issues. However, yesterday saying my oath I got a little emotional. Saying it in French is what got me. As silly as it sounds it brought back memories of first coming here and hearing airplane announcements in both languages which was new to me at the time.

Unfortunately the ceremony is an online affair these days, so I was sat at home doing it in my office with 100+ other people. I would've preferred the big in person ceremony. Oh well, I was on a natural high for the rest of the day anyway, spending the afternoon watching my favourite Canadian cultural artifacts - classic NFB shorts.