u/No-Cut2564

I`m Ukrainian. I’ve been in Canada for almost 3 years now. All this time I’ve been trying to rebuild my life, restart my career, and honestly just figure out if this country will accept me… or eventually push me out.

At the beginning, English was a huge struggle. Now it’s a bit better, but there are still days when I feel like I don’t understand anything at all. Hopefully I’m not the only one who feels like this. But what really hits me is the financial side. What once felt like some kind of “dream life” doesn’t feel like that anymore.

If you ask me how much I’ve managed to save in these 3 years - the answer is… negative. I’m a few thousand dollars in the hole. Every month I’m just trying to cover previous expenses and stay afloat. And technically I’m “managing”… but this doesn’t feel like a life I imagined. I work a lot. I run multiple projects. But rent, car expenses, groceries - everything just eats up whatever I make. There’s nothing left. No savings. No buffer.

Is it just me or is it impossible to save money in Canada right now?

Am I doing something wrong?

I watched the movie “Michael” and I’m still processing how it made me feel.

On one hand visually, it’s a very beautiful film. The atmosphere, the details, the way it’s shot you really get pulled into the story. But what affected me the most wasn’t that. It was how sensitive and deeply emotional he is portrayed as a person.

At some point, it makes you understand more why he struggled with accepting himself, his appearance, and why there was so much inner conflict.

But the hardest part for me was the scenes with his father. That harsh, aggressive “parenting style.” When a child gets punished just for trying to express himself, for feeling, for being who he is. That part really triggered me.

I’m originally from a post-Soviet country, and unfortunately, this felt very familiar.
I had similar experiences growing up. And at the same time it’s complicated I can’t say I had a bad family. I have a good relationship with my parents, and I consider my upbringing generally stable.

But those moments… they still stay somewhere deep inside you. And while watching the film, it felt like my inner child was just shrinking. It really hit something.

Maybe that’s why I’m genuinely glad that things are changing now.
That parenting approaches are becoming more conscious, more respectful, more humane. For me, this film turned out to be much more than just a “beautiful story.”