edited by Meri Kirlic

I have been living in the city of Toronto for the past two years now and I can honestly say I will never leave the city environment. Like any city, Toronto has its subcultures where certain groups tend to stick together. While places like Chinatown, Little Italy, and such tend to cater towards immigrants of their own culture, I have found that for the most part, the people there are very generous and welcoming. To understand why let us take a look at where I came from. I was born in the relatively larger town of Winchester, Virginia, but shortly after I moved to a very rural town named Hazard, Kentucky. There, I lived next to none of my life, and left the U.S.A. Only to move to another small town now in Canada, named Keswick, Ontario. Having lived my entire teenage, and prior, life in a small town I will be the first one to say they do have their perks. I know that comparing living places is no way to get a good judgement across, but, when you know my history you can see why I have made the decision to never leave the city; the people determine the government.

Growing up in Keswick is slow, from the people all the way to the educational system. Keswick holds a variety of people. The problem here being this variety of people have the exact same ideals and political views – mostly conservative. Topics such as gender equality, homosexuality, and drugs are seldom discussed, if at all. Now I’m not saying everyone should discuss their sexual preferences or drug use over dinner, but, I believe that most of these topics should be socially acceptable in a small town community, as they have already become a topic readily discussed among my peers in the city. With this in mind, there is no way such topics should go neglected when voting time comes around. Thus leading to a difference in political opinion with my summer-town dwellers (not that it matters that much, as I’m only there for 4/12 months). I would like to think that the way the people act is purely based on their lack of knowledge.

In this town there are two high schools, a Catholic and a public school. I strongly believe that because the town is so small it gets neglected of quality teachers to occupy and work in the institutions. Do not get me wrong here, some of the teachers are truly, quite amazing, but, others lack what it takes to keep a class under control – not to mention teach material that is relevant to the course subject matter. Having come from a public school environment, and now being in my third year studying Software Engineering, I must say I was not at all prepared for my first year of university. Now, it is partially my fault as I never studied in high school, mostly because my grades came easy to me (and that right there should tell you enough about the Keswickian education system).