I am who I be.

man its funny how something so small like an invisible line on the earth can change everything. That line tells me where im from. Who I am and as such dictates how much I have to pay for school. . . invisible lines ...

The other week I found myself in upper state California barreling down some white water rapids in a boat with virtual strangers thinking about how nice it might be to have the guy in front of me fall out of said giant blown up boat. Before the thought could even be finished in my mind -

BOOOOM!!!

we crash up and on to a rock and he is suddenly airborne.

SPLASH!!!

And my first thought was "oh my Gawd is he okay!? where is he!?"

He was fine and we got him back into the boat without a problem. Foiled.

my mean thoughts were trumped by my emergency nice thoughts.

oh blog muhgog being mean is too much work.

How did I get there? good question. these strangers are probably going to be my future family some day. Not this guy.

Its not that I hate him because I dont. Hate is a strong word and I dont really like to use it a whole lot. Hes just. . . ignorant. so so ignorant and that is what prompted my "out-of-boat-flinging" thoughts.

when in conversation ( a few hours prior) he blurts " Your Canadian what you have to say doesn't count. Talk to me when your American"

"Um I never plan on becoming an American"

"Then you don't matter."

I wish my eyes could shoot death rays.

Or maybe wart rays so whatever I shoot will have terrible warts!!! (*See even now I dont really wish death. . . just unhappy things)

This was just one of many rude things he said to me that weekend. When asked by others surrounding me why I didnt lash back at him I calmly told them that "thats not me".

I didnt ignore him

I didnt shun him

and I didnt get angry at him.

People like that just want you to be rude and aggravated back to them. thats what they are trying to do- get a rise outta you.

I aint fallin for that garbage.

It wasn't until later that night around the campfire that he chirped up with "what do you know? your just a Canadian."

Once everyone fell awkwardly silent and glanced at each other and then tentatively at me, I calmly said

"You know what. . . I think you should know that its Ignorant Ass holes like you that give Americans a bad name."

more silence

followed by grins.

Everyone smiled in agreement and added things like "there you go buddy" or "ha ha yeah shes right man" and he finally sat quietly in embarrassment before finally asking me some questions about my country.

I am who I be and I love my country. no matter where I go.

When we left, he shook my hand and I looked him in the eyes and firmly said

"See ya later eh?"