America was my greatest adventure and my biggest fear. Having never traveled to a foreign country before, I was intrigued about the culture, the people, the country itself. What will it be like? Will I be able to adjust to that pace of life? Will I make friends? Questions that plagued me; but ones which had no definitive answers. Even before I arrived in America, the trepidation I felt was of not having the familiarity of home like I had in my country Colombia. Moving to another country meant that I had to start my life all over again; It was my challenge, one that I accepted and vowed that I would thrive in. Failure was not an option.All that I am today is what I have learned after moving here. Every experience I have had has been valuable. Every …show more content…
I interpreted in sign language for my mother when she went to the doctor. I dealt with the store clerk if anyone in the family needed new shoes. I was the one the mechanic would growl at when we had problems with the car's transmission. I loved the challenge. But it involved a strange role reversal. Usually people ignore children and talk to adults. In our case, people would bend down and talk to me. I was part of very grownup things and witnessed all those painfully boring things adults do behind closed doors that most people never see until they're in college. It's a blessing and a curse. Though with this blessing, I got to experience another culture that most people never see that is very vibrant. I wouldn't have transformed into who I am today without I used to mistake their innocence for unsophistication and had grown angry thinking about all the times they didn't fight back when they were mistreated. But it was slowly dawning on me that their innocence was a protection. They knew very well, certainly better than I, how harsh the world was. And they realized early on they had one of two choices: to be bitter, or to enjoy their