Wouldn't the world be better if people went around without labels? That's one of the viewpoints I wish more people would embrace. My name is Emily Petit-Jean. I'm a young Black woman of Haitian descent living in the city of Toronto, Ontario. I'm a student at the University of Toronto, majoring in Business Administration. I hold an Associate's Degree in Nursing, and I'm going to earn my Bachelors Degree in Business soon. My parents tried to push me into Nursing but it's just not for me. So I switched majors. These days, I live in the Toronto suburb of Ajax. I commute to campus, and so far, I'm having a fucked-up year. It's also been quite alright, in many ways. Welcome to my life.
My parents, Benoit and Jacqueline Petit-Jean kicked me out after discovering that I am a lesbian. I guess even though Canada now allows gay marriage, the Haitian community has yet to embrace same-sex relationships. And that makes me mad. The way they looked at me after catching me making out with my 'friend' Roselyn Calixte. They just burst into my room and started yelling. It's something I will never forget. You would have thought they'd seen a ghost. Or a two-headed snake. My mother yelled at Roselyn to get the hell out of the house. I proceeded to leave with my lady. My mother wouldn't have it. She grabbed me, then she smacked the shit out of me, pardon my Torontonian. I still cringe when I thought of that night.
Growing up, I knew I was different. And not just because I was a semi-rebel hailing from a deeply conservative Haitian family. My mother Carmelie Fils-Aime is the Pastor of the Haitian Seventh-Day Adventist Church of East Toronto, Ontario. When she's not behind the pulpit, she runs our household with an iron fist. And she's also the Vice Principal of Carthage Academy. My father Benoit Petit-Jean is her devoted hubby and yes-man. Dad came to Canada when he was eighteen years old. He studied at the University of British Columbia, where he earned his Law degree. For years he was a Crown Prosecutor in the city of Vancouver. He now teaches at a college in North Toronto. It's due to his savvy that I got such a good education. I attended Carthage Academy, a private school located in suburban Toronto. It has a student body of eight hundred. Fifty five percent of the students are of African, Asian or Middle-Eastern descent.
Carthage Academy is both diverse and inclusive. The sons and daughters of immigrant families feel quite at home there. It's a school that observes the Ramadan as much as it observes Christmas and Kwanza. We had eight Black teachers and three Arabs among the twenty two people teaching at Carthage Academy. That's more faculty diversity than most schools ever get, especially in Canada. There were two hundred and seventeen Haitian students at the school when I went there. Sometimes, we had class in Haitian Creole and I absolutely loved it.
I learned about Haitian history and the actions of Haitian heroes like Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Petion. I wasn't only learning about European history, which is mostly about the actions of white guys with world domination schemes. Most Haitian youth growing up in Canada or the U.S. for that matter aren't lucky enough to have such access to their history or cultural heritage. My parents wanted me to succeed in Canadian society but they also wanted me to remember where I came from. I'll always be thankful for that.
