Since the big change happened in my life, Quincy is the first place where I live when I came to the United States. And Atlantic Middle School is first school where I educated. I have a lot of experienced in Atlantic, both happiness and pain. It makes me fell in love with the American culture and join the family. The United States and China are totally different from the aspects of culture, languages and
Transitioning to the American life as a ten-year-old child was extremely challenging. I was clueless and did not understand anything. English was painful to learn even though; I realized it must be essential to know it. Philippines was my home moreover, I missed the people, the food, and the places I have visited. School was especially a struggle to me.
This story about almost six years ago, when I came to the USA. Before I came to the USA I thought everybody will be different than me. For example, I thought that all people in the USA are white with gold, white, and brown hairs. When I land at the airport and I saw a lot people with black hair and not everyone were white.
My mom told me that I needed to start preparing my luggage. I was very confused, so I ask my mom, “get ready for what?” My mom replied, “ prepare to come to America!” I was very excited, because I have never learned or experienced of what it would be like to live in a totally different country. Full of mind was thought about how the United States will look like; what is their living environment; how do education works in school.
In fact, this experience has enabled me to adapt to any situation that I come across. It was so unexpected. I was in school and out of nowhere my parents came up to me and said, “Son! We are going to America! Our lives are about to change, your life is about to change and you are going to have a great future.”
I was raised under a belt held by my father. To this day I can still recall the days I witnessed my father 's abuse to my family physically and emotionally. My family was tightly gripped by my father; which resulted to my sisters and I fearing him as we grew up. As a child, I was the one who got hit the most.
I moved back to the U.S, because my older brother had to get his appendix removed. My father thought that it was right that the doctors in the U.S should get the surgery done. I returned back to the U.S when i was about 10 years old, I was very excited. When I got off the plane, I didn't smell the camels and sand, it smelled nothing like it. When I came back to the U.S, it was around February which was Winter.
With the whir of the airplane’s engine in my ears, my seatbelt fastened, and my window shield up I saw the city blur into the runway and fall from beneath me. My home was falling away from me, slipping through my fingers ever so gently. No more warm island air flowing off the shores. No more curious spirits coming out to ask questions. No more familiarity, no more Okinawa.
Moving to Asia when I was 15 years old, as an American, was one of the hardest challenges I have faced in my life. Growing up in Marin County, California, a beautiful suburban bubble with little to no diversity. I was forced to let go of the life, friendships, and future plans I had established but the saddest part was leaving my extended family. All to move to a new country, Singapore, a place 13,857 km away that I knew nothing of. To say I was anxious was an understatement.
Being one of twenty can be difficult but I learned to identify myself as Ayantu instead of just one of the Abdulwahab children. My parents are both from Ethiopia born and raised. When they met they both had a desire to raise a large family that would leave their mark on this world forever. Ethiopia is a great place but not the best place to raise a large family with a dream of success. They knew the only way to make this dream happen is to move to America, where dreams come true.
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.
What happens is not the first matter of concern. How you react to the event is the key to future success. Events and the environment are not ours to control. Reactions can be, however, easily changed by our efforts. I learned this from one failure I experienced which I would never want to repeat again.
Life in the United States for my father and I had been unkind. We lived in a really beaten up trailer home in Northeast Portland. We had no money and were on the verge of becoming homeless. Too poor to buy food from the grocery store, we survived on partially spoiled food from local food banks and the extra food I would snatch from school. Our trailer, with poor 1970’s insulation and paper thin aluminum tin exterior, was practically a refrigerator during winter.
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.
That is a totally mysterious country for me, so who knows? ” That is the new world of my life. When I moved to America, I learned to be more independent. When I
