Global Sociological Imagination
Gurdave Johal
My journey to life as a 19 year old East Indian male began 50 years ago in a little village in India called the Punjab. I will begin with explaining my Dad’s father’s history of how he traveled to Canada. In 1962 my Granddad on my Dad’s side had to make a life changing decision about how to make a better life for him and his family. My great granddad came to the decision that he had realized that for his son to have a fulfilled life he would need to immigrate to Canada. My Dad’s aunt was already living in Canada and had planted a seed in my Granddad’s mind that she could help arrange for him and his family to immigrate to Canada. The process included several different individuals input, no one person was more important than the other. It was a chain of connections and from start to finish every single person had a part to play. My great granddad’s participation was providing the funding for this venture and my dad’s aunt provided the connections from overseas. With the knowledge and information all parties executed a fine tuned successful plan that enabled my father and his family to move to Canada. The way this journey impacted me is assuming my great granddad and my granddad had not held this discussion or this thought, I would probably have been born in India and occupied a totally different life.. I have volunteered for the Heart and Stroke foundation for the last five years. The way I have impacted other people’s lives is I have been a little part of a big company that has enabled patients in other countries and in Canada to get medical support they need from this organization. My job and responsibility has been door to door canvassing and fundraising for this organization. This is the way I have made connections that have made a difference in other people’s lives.
