Adversity-Personal Narrative Analysis

Adversity seems like a negative experience, but for me, it provided a great opportunity for maturation and learning. Growing up in Connecticut, I never understood what my parents had gone through immigrating to the United States from Argentina in 1983, knowing very little English. I lived in the same place my whole life and I was happy. Then one day, just weeks short of my tenth birthday, my dad came home with news that his company had offered him a position in Switzerland. My parents were both very excited and happy. Needless to say, I was not; I didn’t see the point of leaving everything I knew behind and going to a country with a completely different culture and language. Deep down I was terrified, of being lost in an unknown culture, of being alone because I was leaving my American friends behind. For me it was enough to have a mix of two cultures, Argentine from my parents and American from my home; adding a third seemed like it would present an impossible challenge.

It was my first trip to Europe, and I was surprised at how different it was from the United States: on average the houses were much smaller, the restaurants had really small servings, the language was entirely different and the customs didn’t make much sense to me. We returned to the U.S. as the school year began, but because we still hadn’t gotten our visas, my mom would be homeschooling me until we could move out there. By mid-October we began packing for the move. The last few weeks were the hardest; I said goodbye to all my friends, not knowing when I would see them