Paula Dallo Lopez Email & Phone Number

I have never had a definite home. My family has always been on the move around the world. I have moved six times and lived in Uruguay, Nicaragua, Honduras, the United States of America, and Canada. My nomadic lifestyle began when I was two. Ever since then, I have never had a place that comes to mind when the word “home” is mentioned. In the eighth grade, I was asked to write a paragraph about my home. As a 13 year-old, I recall being the only one in my class that did not have a picture-perfect idealistic structure to write about. There was never a tree in my front yard into which I carved my name. Every wall in my rented homes was off white. We were not allowed to have pencil marks on the door frames indicating how much my brother and I had grown since the house we lived in was never truly ours. My hand prints have not been left in a cement walkway ensuring my existence to future generations. Today, as a university student, I still struggle to define where home is for me.My life is shaped by the privilege of living in various countries and experiencing so many different cultures. What I have learned by moving around the world so much is how to accept and adapt. My father calls these “soft skills.” Skills that I would have never developed if I had lived in the same place my entire life. That is why it is so important for me to include a description of my background. All of the houses, the countries and the people that I have encountered along the way have fashioned me into the person I am. Today, I am an independent , responsible, bilingual (almost trilingual learning French) woman. I am culturally aware of the world due to experiencing so many different countries each with unique ideas and values. I am very grateful for these skills and my background since they have allowed me to prepare for my new home, my home away from home, my life in Montreal.