In some moments, her tears would just refrain. How? She had no idea. An indescribable feeling of sorrow started growing, and overwhelming her heart with sadness. That’s not how she was. Happy, always smiling Melissa once used to be the distributor of joys. Her presence would convert any nostalgic circumstance into tranquil moments of happiness. In fact, for a motivation she was known as the daydreamer girl. Since childhood, Melissa believed in the power of dreams so strongly that she would create her own imaginary world, where everything was seen under her perspectives. Her dreams would transport her away from the concrete real life, and carry her into an abstract world where she would view herself as a strong, successful, and happy woman in her home country, Italy. Yes, Italy. One national characteristic, it’s to embrace life to the full: with the hundreds of local festivals taking place across the country on any given day, the importance placed on good food, and the obsession with clothes and image. Full of history and romanticism, tourists would get intimidated by the art and the architecture. With its beautiful weather, this country would make you feel so comfortable, with the friendly society, and extreme generous hospitality. Everything was fine. Everything was perfect for her. Until the day her family took that irreversible decision: moving to Canada. Melissa always desired to travel, but moving permanently to another country was something she had never expected. Despite her continuous oppositions to her parent’s decisions, she couldn’t do much. After all, she was only a sixteen years old girl living in the 2007 society, where teenagers are not considered responsible and mature enough to understand the positive objective behind parent’s decisions. But what pushed her parents to this limit, she really couldn’t comprehend. A different country, new society, new people, and new expectations. Canadian People stabilize a solid pattern in their life, consisting of work, and the uncontrollable desire of making more money. No one would go for a walk in the warm evenings, or sit in the park and talk with friends, and a factor preventing this was the cold and depressing weather. Time was something people didn’t have, and also missing was the willingness to socialize and interact with others in a generous way. She was left disappointed because the images of Canada did not meet with the ideal of what her country was like. These entire situations reinforced Melissa’s refusal to adapt or change herself in any way to become more ‘Canadian’, which exemplified her desire to keep her Italian heritage. Her customs was what helped to preserve her Italian identity. By keeping her identity Melissa felt like her homeland was somehow constantly with her. At first, everything seemed to be easy. Holding your culture so close in a new land wasn’t after all really hard until she started frequenting school, and got to know about the racist behavior running in the school. This was demonstrated by silly jokes, and not really accommodating actions applied against new students, or students with a different skin color. My new friend Hanaa told me a few stories showing the rude actions of some students against some new comers. Hanaa was a really simple girl, with whom I could open myself and be confidential. Sometimes I would be amazed by how close we got in such a limited amount of time. Melissa was concerned that her being Italian, and new in the school would create problems for her. In fact, she was sure about that, and a factor differentiating her form other normal Canadian students was her accent. Also, a confirmation of her belief was given by some girls, whom Melissa heard making rude comments on her way of speaking English. More complications came into her life the day she got the terrific English assignment. It consisted in writing a couple of paragraphs on how a teenager life could be affected by peer pressure, and to what extent you’ve been effected by it. Melissa was preoccupied, not about writing but about presenting her work in front of the whole class. Various thoughts were running into her head: the fear of getting embarrassed and humiliated in front of everyone. Fortunately, Melissa considered herself strong enough, and as her mum always said “If you have inner strength, you’ll be able to overtake every problem”. After all, that’s how she viewed herself: strong and courageous as her mum. These thoughts kept concerning her till the moment she was standing in front of all her classmates ready to read her assignment. While reading she could hear students secretly laughing on the way she mispronounced few words, but she ignored them. She was at the end of the first paragraph, stating how she belonged to Italy, a completely different state, with separate customs and society when she got interrupted by a student. “You’re from Italy? That’s so cool!”, stated the guy sitting at the very end, with dark curly hair. She was proceeding answering the question when a few other students made the same comment. After that, most of the class and the teacher himself were surprised on having a European student for the first time. Instead of reading her assignment, Melissa found herself in an interview, talking about her life and how she was willing to preserve her Italian culture. After the long conversation, Melissa went back and sat in her desk, thinking how she feared unnecessarily. All of a sudden she felt accepted, even if hers wasn’t the perfect “Canadian accent”. This also strengthens her belief on keeping the Italian customs alive, and made her proud of herself and her being capable of reading in front of everyone. She was happy, really happy, and a phrase was travelling around in her brain: “If you have inner strength, you’ll be able to overtake every problem