First Person

Why I’ve said goodbye to Uncle Sam and dropped my dual citizenship

The lessons I learned from Nancy Drew still ring true today

The benefit of my childhood travels came from my parents themselves

When gnocchi carries the power to hurt and to heal

Toss your anti-aging creams. Aging isn’t dying – it’s living!

Here’s why I won’t be accepting your cottage invitation

Sometimes I have to ask myself: Am I Indigenous enough?

Letting myself get lost in Saskatoon

My poodle sensed my eating disorder and she’s helping me to recover

I’ll never be the calm, cool, collected type, and I’m finally okay with that

Painting my nails became a new shortcut to self-expression

Three homemade benches brought community to our Calgary neighbourhood

I got stuck in an elevator – and instead of panic, humanity ensued

I lie to my mom because she will worry. Some things I need to fix on my own

Getting back on a bike after my brother’s unexplained death helps me heal

There’s something about Cyrillic – it’s why I spent years learning Russian on my phone

In La Paz, whale sharks gave me my Jacques Cousteau moment

Taking down our fence and planting a garden made us better neighbours

At long last I can breathe deeply, despite my cystic fibrosis

Am I really married if my husband doesn’t want to wear his ring?

Weddings vs funerals: Do officiants prefer one ceremony over the other?

I was determined to vote in a Canadian election while hiking the Camino de Santiago

This one foolproof question helps me weed out the wrong kind of man

Cleaning up Dad’s clothes to donate gave me time to remember him

Calling my favourite Canadian orchid a weed is just plain insulting

What I’ve learned from job interview screw ups

Meeting two boys in Guatemala taught me more about Latin America than any of my books

Wing night with my grandmother was about so much more than the wings

Running has taught me some important life lessons

Canada is my home, but so is Trinidad and Tobago

How becoming a storyteller helped me to become a Canadian

Camping felt like something people just did on TV, and then I tried it

My immigrant grandparents are unapologetically Chinese, I learned a lot from them

Canada’s birds helped me connect with my new country

I never thought I’d miss the neighbourhood I grew up in