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My reaction to the mattress store was my first clue that I had returned to North America a different person than I left it. How alien it seemed: stores the size of city blocks devoted to mattresses!

But more upsetting was my own reaction. This was, after all, my culture, from birth. I’d only been away in Belize for 10 months. How was it possible that everything at home seemed so strange?

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It was 20 years ago, but I still remember the feeling in my stomach as I realized that “home” was not there any more for me, not quite in the same way, that it never would be again. That was probably the moment I grew up.

This week, the CIPS working group on global sustainable development released its report about how Canada should engage with the world. (I moderated the panel at its launch on Monday.)

It recommends, among several other worthy goals, that this country create a generation of globally minded citizens. It suggests that “by 2030, every Canadian university graduate should complete an overseas learning or work opportunity, with an emphasis on emerging economies.”