“At Assiniboia, I was mostly preoccupied with trying to get good grades but at the same time got very homesick, even if I was now older. That sense of forced isolation from loved ones was one shared by many of my classmates. On the edge of this fenced yard where we all played baseball, my girlfriends and I endlessly walked and reminisced about our homes or boyfriends. Many years later, I revisited those schoolgrounds: the path we used to walk, week after week, was still visible.”

“By spring time, some of the girls would literally count the day until we were headed home. After ten straight months of forced separation from our families, we were deeply relieved to rejoin them. The happiness I felt when the plane touched down and I could once again see the smiling faces of my waiting parents is something I’ll never forget.”

“These all-too-short summer holidays over, I dreaded the idea of going back to school and being away from my family for so many months. It never got easier.”