HALIFAX, NS—First year student Alyssa Fortworth knew she had made a mistake the second she asked the question. “Well that’s really hard to answer,”explained dorm neighbour Scott Bissick, who had recently returned from a year of traveling. She had asked him where he was from.
“Where do I even begin— as a citizen of the world, it’s hard to reduce my identity to just one place on the map, you know? We live in a society with far too many labels, and I don’t want where I went to highschool defining me— I feel like I’ve lived an entirely new life since graduation. I can say hello in 21 languages, my favorite food is something you probably wouldn’t even be able to pronounce, and my passport has more stamps than a forearm after a night on Argyle,” lectured Scott.
As Alyssa began to reply she was cut off, as Scott continued, “It will honestly feel plain wrong walking to class with only a laptop in my backpack, I’m just so used to having my whole life packed away in there you know? Also—I’m a year older than you, so if you ever need life advice, or something picked up from the NSLC just let me know.”
After nodding and smiling her way out of the conversation, Alyssa noticed that Scott had dropped his ID on the ground, revealing his hometown to be Toronto, Ontario.