When I arrived in the U.S at age 12 ½ it was a huge adjustment for me as I did not speak English. I was suddenly living with a family and not in the orphanage that I grew up in. it was hard for me to leave my orphanage in China I had lived there my whole life and thought of the orphanage as my home. After being adopted and now living in America I have so many opportunities I did not have in China. When I first came to America I had to have 8 surgeries and spent 6 months in a wheel chair but this was done to remove a potential cancerous birthmark covering my entire lower leg. In china, surgery was not possible. I also was able to play sports and go to school in America. Most importantly, I got to be part of a family that loves me. In china,
Today I will be talking about the first time I came to America and how it has changed my life. When I was five years old, I started first grade in Turkey. I was afraid because my parents signed me up late and I thought I wouldn’t be able to make friends. Both my parents came with me for the first day of school and I made them wait outside of my classroom because they couldn’t come inside the classroom. The first time I entered class, all the kids were with their friends and the teacher had assigned me in between two girls.
Challenge Essay Moving into The United States that has a different language has been the biggest obstacle that I have ever faced, especially with the fact that there was a time where I didn’t understand a single word of that language called English. This was a big obstacle in my life since I was raised in Mexico where the prime language, there is Spanish and that was the only language I knew back then, it was until the day had come where my family and I had to move into the United States due to the violence that has been happening in Mexico. I consider those times the most difficult ones of my whole life because I had to work triple than what I normally did in school in order for me to learn a huge complex language.
Many kids do not realize how life is out of the United States. I have experienced a completely new aspect of life outside of an American life into a third world country. Being able to stay there for half of the summer each year as taught me valuable characteristics. The culture experience I had in El Salvador has made me a humble individual, who has become more generous and a thankful person.
I can remember it like it was yesterday. My parents left me when I was fifteen years old to go to America. I thought to myself for one year, they left me here to starve, live, and die alone in eastern Europe. When I was sixteen years old I got ready to move to America and start a new life.
Its 1914 and I just got the news that we were finally going to America! We have been waiting for several years trying to save up money and figure everything out. Going to America is almost every ones dream here in Europe. Just like Oscar Hammerston said, “ You gotta have a dream.
Growing up in Indonesia, it was very tough because my parents did not have great jobs and couldn’t provide food to the table every day but they worked and tried their hardest. Everyone in Indonesia dreams of coming to America because it is the land of opportunities, however, coming to America is not an easy process. In Indonesia, there wasn’t a public school system so the only form of education was through private school, which was highly inaccessible to many due to the high costs. Luckily, I received the opportunity to come to the United States and I never took that for granted because I saw how bad conditions can really be in less fortunate countries. I arrived to the states when I was 5 and enrolled in elementary school.
I was born in the U.S, but at the age of three months my 18 year old mother took me with her back to the life she knew in Mexico City. She, as well as me, grew up without a father not knowing most of the time a single thing of what they did or where they were. We also share that we are only childs, so we are used to be independent and do most things on our own.
Although I was born in the states, I am very grateful that I was able to experience life outside of the United States. Aside from living abroad, I got to travel abroad extensively. Once the tour was up overseas, we returned to the U. S. and another cultural dimension was added to my life. My two step-brothers came to reside with us after we returned to the United states. They were half African American and half Vietnamese.
As a teenager moving to a new country with a different culture, different language, and being thousands of miles away from everyone I grew up with was not an easy change, however, that was precisely what I did in January of 2013 when I came to the United States with my father. My whole world changed since, and shaped my way of thinking. From learning English, adjusting to a new culture, experiencing my first snow and finding my way in my new country, my life has been an exciting adventure. My parents brought me to America almost 5 years ago to have a better life, and to get a better education.
The first eight years of my life, I spent in India where I was born. Growing up I was constantly reminded by my parents that I needed to make them proud by getting a good job and living a good lifestyle. They told me this because they did not want to see me live a hard life like they did. When I was nine years old, I moved from India to the United States of America. The reason why I moved to America was not because I was living a bad life in India, it was so that I could have a better education and more opportunities in life.
I used to have this grudges in my heart when everything go hard that would made me wanted to blame my parent. But I can’t because I was not raise to think that way. When I come to America, I was eleven years old and no one asked me if I wanted to come it just happen in a second. I was in a cold place with extended family that I never met before and that one person who raise me and made me feel secure was still back in the country. I had to lived months without her and next thing you know I adapted and convince myself they are doing this because the wanted the best for me.
Being born in the United States as a Hmong boy makes me Hmong American. I spent my entire childhood with an illiterate woman. While I was at school, she would be at home cooking and doing household chores. This woman was the person who raised and took care of me; this woman was my grandmother. My grandmother was the person who gave me the opportunities I have today.
During their stay with us, I gained an appreciation for my Mexican heritage. My cousins came the states to work and although they were qualified as civil engineers, they worked long hours as busboys at a local restaurant. They showed me the meaning of hard work and what it meant to have pride in my heritage. My feelings towards the racial stereotypes that I had encountered changed and I became motivated to prove my worth and overcome the lack of acceptance from my peers. Freshman year started and I set out to improve my grades.
I am a daughter of a refugee and an immigrant. My father left Ethiopia and walked across several countries finally coming to America. While my mother came after 15 years since the communist advance into South Vietnam. I come from a household of parents from two different continents. Their arrival america gave an unique atmosphere in the household.
Coming from a low income family, living in a small town in India, I learned early on about struggling and surviving those struggles. I watched my parents working day and night to provide for electricity, pay for our monthly school fees so my sister and I can have a better education, and for the future they wished upon for their children. To further enhance this vision, my father decided for the family and I to immigrate to the US. Everything was different in the sense that I changed schools, learned a new language, had to make new friends, and learned the different culture. I had to adapt to a whole new world, which was a little difficult at 6 years old