Patriotic

A twelve-year-old boy in one of my classes is incredibly patriotic. His grandparents came to Australia from Italy and he is passionate about all things Italian.

That's great; passion is good, right?

Of course it's good, until it starts turning into hatred and intolerance for the country in which one finds oneself.

I am British and Kiwi and I live in Australia. I also speak fluent French, as well as a smattering of Spanish and German. I'm a mixture. My heart is in England with my family, but it's also in New Zealand, where I lived for fourteen years. I love France too.

Australia isn't home yet, but this is where my lovely husband is and I know it'll become home in time. I don't badmouth Australia (well, apart from the spiders and other creepy crawlies ...) and I pray that this student will learn that in time, before he gets bashed for his opinions.

We can only hope.

~Barking~