What life is like for a 14-year-old from Syria on her first day of high school in Canada
CBC
Excitement and a touch of nervousness go through Mazenah Mouhrat's mind as she prepared for a very important milestone: her first day of high school in Canada.
"Think my first day at this high school, I'm not going to sleep," she said ahead of last Tuesday's start to the school year.
"I feel excited to meet new people, it's like a new life."
Mouhrat, originally from Homs, Syria, immigrated from Egypt in October of 2023, and has now started high school at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton.
She said she's most excited about making new friends, which she does everywhere she goes.
"I love to meet new people," she said. Here's how she plans to do it.
"Maybe I'm just going to go to them and ask them 'what's your name?' 'Do you want to be friends with me?' or 'do you want to eat lunch with me?'"
The transition from Egypt to Canada happened quickly. Only 15 days passed between finding out about the move and stepping foot on Canadian soil.
"It was very hard," Mouhrat recalls. "You live in a country for ten years, you make a lot of friends, you love them, and then you leave them."
Despite the difficulty of leaving behind the life she knew, she was excited about starting over in Canada, a country she had dreamed of living in.
Mouhrat's family left Syria when she was only three-years-old, and had been living in Egypt ever since.
After arriving in Canada on Oct. 10, 2023, they stayed in a hotel during the first 20 days in the country, before starting in ESL school for a few months.
Adjusting to a new education system and learning a new language are amongst the most common obstacles children Mouhrat's age face when they first arrive in Canada, according to the senior manager of newcomer programs at the YWCA in Hamilton, Tehreem Zafar.
Zafar says parents who were once very involved in their children studies often times feel "abandoned by the school system" once they get to Canada and face language barriers and an unfamiliar system.
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