I had always had a dream where I would be able to leave the confinements of my two bedroom apartment back home in Pakistan. Being the youngest child in a family of five, you quickly get to realize that the couch surprisingly doubles as a very comfy bed. Little did I know that I was going on a permanent vacation to Canada, a country that I had never even heard of before.
When I arrived in Canada, my mother immediately started enrolling me in after school programs so that I could make friends with kids from diverse backgrounds. One of the after school programs that my mom encouraged me to take part in was the Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Conversation Club group mentoring program.
For starters, whenever we had a new mentee in the program, we would introduce ourselves to each other which helped to improve my English significantly. Introductions were followed by games so that we could break the ice. Over the course of one year I had met many people and made several friends through Big Brothers and Big Sisters, as a result of which the program became my regular routine for the next 7 years.
