My Favorite Place: Toronto, Ontario

As I spent my early childhood living in Canada, the city of Toronto, Ontario encompasses why Canada still feels like home to me. More specifically, my favorite place in the world is Downtown Toronto. After moving to Oklahoma from Windsor, Ontario, a city with a very high population of working-class immigrant families, I found myself often feeling out of place. When I go back to Toronto, I don't feel out of place because there is no "place". In Oklahoma, I always feel myself having to be self-aware of my skin color, my ethnicity, my background, my class, etc. for my comfort and my safety, but in Toronto, as is the same in many large cities, there is no standard or stereotype as to what a typical Torontonian looks, acts, or lives like. You encounter people of so many different backgrounds that nothing about you, your life story, or your heritage feels unusual. You are reminded of the diversity within Toronto just by driving through the city, crossing through the ethnic enclaves that tell a story about settlement, the opportunity to thrive in the city, and more broadly, the "Canadian Dream". In less than twenty-five minutes, you can stop in Chinatown to buy some tea and beautiful imported glassware and then drive through a neighborhood scattered with historic and regal synagogues and Hebrew painted across many building walls, just to make it to my family's favorite destination of Gerrard Street, which is notorious for being lined with South Asian stores, venues, and restaurants.

I took this picture of the Toronto Bay from my hotel which was right next to the CN Tower in March of 2015, as I had to visit Toronto to go to the US Embassy for an interview for my American citizenship

This is Dundas Street, one of the busiest and most well known streets in 

Downtown Toronto, on which most of Chinatown is located.

Dundas Street West at Huron Street, Toronto 2010. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Gerrard Street, Toronto. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

If I could describe Toronto in one word, it would be "comfortable". I feel at home away from home when I am surrounded by fellow Canadians, by fellow South Asians, and by fellow immigrants. There is always something to do, something to learn, and most definitely, something to eat! I hope that this post incentivizes at least one person to visit Toronto in their lifetime because there is something there that will interest each and every person. If you have any questions about it, please do not hesitate to ask me!

"Diversity: our strength" -Official Motto of Toronto