I was born in Merritt, B.C. June 10, 1996. I was one of the last kids to be born in that hospital. My family moved to Prince George, B.C. in August 1997 and I lived there until I was 17.
I have an Opa- Otto, Dad-Finlay, Mom- Michele, brother- Gabriel(32), brother-Jeremy(30), sister-Emily(18), and two sister in-laws.
Gabriel and his wife Nika(missing from photo) live in Ottawa, ON and the rest of us are living in Kamloops.
I grew up a competitive dancer. I did all forms of dance: ballet, jazz, contemporary, highland, tap, and hip hop. I danced about thirty hours per week and went to many competitions a year. When I was fourteen I decided to stick mainly to classical ballet.
I was a provincial representative for six consecutive years and got scholarships to dance in Hollywood and the lower mainland. I graduated high school a year early and thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do– be a ballerina. When I was seventeen I went and auditioned for multiple ballet schools, but then realized that I did not want to dance. I struggled with some things and I did not think it was a healthy world for me, so I saved up my money for a year and I went travelling in Europe for six months with my best friend from dance Tori.
We went to Scotland and lived with my Aunt and Uncle in Glasgow, whom I had never met, for two months. This aunt was a fantastic woman; she was in Canada for my Dad’s mom’s funeral and while my dad and her were talking he told her I was a little lost in life. She told him to send me over to Scotland and he told me this jokingly on day, but I took it quite literally. I sent her a message the day after we started to make plans. She also connected us with an opportunity to bartend for a catering company that did weddings on Loch Lomond.
It was an amazing opportunity to be able to travel around Scotland as well as make friends and money at such an incredible location! Bartending for Scottish weddings was the rowdiest thing I have ever experienced… first of all trying to understand what they were saying with the accent (harder than you might think) and on top of that they were drunk… So much whiskey I can’t even begin to explain. I can only imagine what a Scottish feast or festival back in the day would have been like…
I have a lot of family history in Scotland, my dad’s parents were first generation Canadians on that side, and I knew very little about them so this seemed like perfect opportunity to learn. My Uncle in Sterling is the family history guru and I learned an incredible amount from him… my family history is a little complicated, but nevertheless very interesting!
My friend Tori and I took a week and hiked the West Highland Way, which was also FULL of history… you literally walk through the Highlands for 97 miles and just breathe in fresh air and life the whole time–maybe blood, sweat, and tears too, but those are minor details. The path uses many ancient roads, including drovers’ roads, military roads and old coaching roads as well as trails which Scottish warriors hiked through and fought on. I could feel the history as we trekked along.
After two months in Scotland, traveling through quite literally the whole country, we saw so many castles and I even learned the history my last name ‘Sinclair’. There is a chapel called the Roslyn Chapel; founded by a man named William Sinclair– who I am convinced I’m related to him somehow–. but this taught me the history of my last name and where the Sinclair’s(previously St. Claire) came from. We hiked up the Wallace Monument and toured around the Stirling Castle, we took a day trip to St. Andrews, where the Middleton’s went to school, and took in the absolute beauty of that town. We were also in Scotland for the big Scottish Independence Referendum Vote… almost relatable to the American election we just had on the scale of riots, violence, etc.
Graveyard within the remnants of St. Andrews Cathedral
St. Andrews
Stirling Castle
After Scotland we head off to France. We spent a week in Paris and then went to the Province of Brittany (North-West France). This was incredible, so much history in this area as well and I would have never known it existed if my sister was not on exchange there. It is not a common place. Brittany became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as if it were a separate nation under the crown– which is somewhat similar to Canada, minus the duchy. We went to St. Malo which was stunning and now when I think about it, all I can think about is the Fille Du Rois and how they sailed through the seas I was looking over and maybe some of them even lived behind the walls of St. Malo.
Paris: Eiffel Tower
Paris: The Palace of Versailles
Paris: Canadian thanksgiving with the friend we stayed with. First Thanksgiving for her parents!
St.Malo
We spent a month in Germany, we fell in left with the culture, people, and obviously food. I met more family I had never met before; two Uncles, two cousins, and a great Aunt. My mom’s parents are first generation in Canada from Germany, they came over during the second world war. My Oma actually took the CP Rail across Canada to Calgary where my Opa already was.
Tori and I spent most of our time in Berlin, which is history central and we saw many main attractions like the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Brandon’s Brigade, Berlin Wall, and the Fernsehturm de Berlín(TV Tower).
TV Tower
Brandon Brigade
Berlin Wall: “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love.” On October 5, East Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a ten-year agreement of mutual support under which East Germany would provide ships, machinery and chemical equipment to the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union would provide fuel and nuclear equipment to East Germany. (This was my favourite piece of art along the wall).
We even got to see one of my Uncle’s get married in Stuttgart which was an experience all in itself since the whole wedding was in German and most of the attendees were as well… But we made friends with an Irish couple who still continue to persuade us to visit them. Being in Germany was fantastic because I learned a lot about the history of my family and started to understand the crazy background stories of my family. I got to meet family that only my Mom had ever met and also see many friends who I hadn’t seen since they were in Canada in high school. We spent a lot of time in Köln with my other Uncle and Auntie and got to see many attractions such as the Cologne cathedral, Schloss Drachenburg, and walk along the Rhein River. It was so cool to be completely surrounded by this culture and truly feel part of the community and history.
Wedding. Notice; not a white dress and literally everyone in the town attended the wedding.
Cologne Cathedral
We did a weekend trip to Prague and my goodness that place was beautiful! Now that I look back at it I remember just wondering what the history of it was because I had never learned about it. Today it is a huge tourist attraction and I will remember the beauty of the city and kindness of the people.
Prague: It’s crazy because we mock the people standing here and try to get them to move, but when I think of it now I just wonder wow… somebody used to actually have to do this each day…
Prague
After Prague we went to Greece… You don’t hear much about Greece other than grade 7 Social Studies and you learn about Ancient History, which scream Athens. We visited there and I have to say, I went into it with low expectations but the culture there was something I have never experienced. The people were so nice, and the monuments were much more interesting than I thought they would be; to mention a few: Acropolis, Parthenon, National Archaeological Museum, and Panathenaic Museum. Maybe I had a bad experience with grade 7 social studies because I hated learning about Ancient Greek history, but being in Greece was like reliving those lectures and I actually got to experience and first handedly see the history which still lives on there. It as incredible and made me respect their country more.
Athens: Mount Lycabettus
Athens: Acropolis
Athens: Acropolis
Athens: Panatheniac Stadium
Perissa, Santorini
We went back to Scotland after two months in Europe. Although I may not have realized it because I was enthralled with the excitement of it all, I was full of history. When I look back now I realize how much this helped me to understand history and relate to it. It made me appreciate the past and proved to me that history is:
1. Super fun!!
2. Societies foundation–we still look to it for answers.
