Graduation Speech : My Mom And My Dad

Throughout my lifetime, I have had many experiences that altered me forever. The best experience that has ever happened to me was when I moved to America from Egypt. Moving to another country like America was the most life –changing experience I have ever encountered. I lived in Egypt for ten years with my parents and older brother. My family was wealthy, my mother was a lawyer, and my father was a geologist. I attended a strict Catholic school when I was in kindergarten. We had to wear a uniform every day and have it clean and ironed. Afterwards, my parents transferred me to a public school because it was closer to home. The transition into the public school was difficult because it was hard for me to make friends at that time. When we

So far in my life I have moved eight times and been to twelve different schools. I’m not talking about just moving houses. I’m talking about eight times, packing all of my things and moving to a whole different state. In all this I have learned the most important quality that anyone needs to get through all of the hardships and changes in moving. That quality is courage.

Moving has been a part of my life, but really it's just work, I like to think of it as a test, that I passed. After moving those five times I understood that, in life it's most important to work hard, every kid hears that but I experienced it, and I'm thankful for it. Without that I would've still made it through those three years, three high schools, and five houses, but it was a matter of making the best of it; or making it

In the past year, a lot has changed for me. I lost a grandfather to cancer, then a month later an uncle to a gruesome semi accident. My grandmother on the other side of the family barely remembers me due to alzheimer's, and my mom lost her job but is now working over 1300 miles away in Florida. If someone would have asked me at the start of my Junior year what I expected to happen, I wouldn’t have listed any of those. As anticipated, it was not easy dealing with a downfall of events like that, but the way I was raised helped me cope with it all. I started out at a small private school, where Religion was just as important as Math and English. How we were to act was drilled into us, and after I switched to public school, there was a noticeable

On August 13th, 2016 my family and I started a new life. We were forced to relocate from Southern California to Prosper, Texas for my dad’s job. When I moved I knew absolutely no one. It was extremely hard to move away from my people that I have been friends with for almost my whole life. It was even harder to say goodbye to my grandma and my brothers. Finding new friends and adjusting to a new city in a new state was very difficult. On the first day of school, I was extremely nervous, because I didn’t know anyone.

Being diagnosed with ADHD, learning in school became difficult for me. In the middle of third grade my life completely changed. My mother got a job opportunity and moved my family to Mentor. I was so excited to move to a new place, start a new school and make new friends. I didn't like my old school because the teachers and students always compared me to my sister.

To start, I have always been the kid that never really had traumatic family issues, as I was also the kid who could be considered ‘spoiled’. My parents typically found a way to give me what was asked, and ensured that my sibling and I always had what we needed. I grew up with a sibling, six years older, who came to be the child who was not athletic, nearly failed high school multiple times, and did not attend college. On the flip side, I was the child making straight ‘A’s in high school, thriving in softball, and planning to attend college. I lived in a very rundown town in Estill County, Kentucky called Irvine. With that, I attended Estill County High School, excelling my freshman through the middle of my sophomore year, where I transferred unwillingly to Boyle County High School in Danville, Kentucky due to my mother getting a better paying job. The biggest differences between the two high schools would be the amount of students, the success rates, and the different styles of teaching. What seemed to be my whole world turning upside down at the time, turned to being the best decision made for me and my family today.

Moving schools and neighborhoods was when I first felt like a stranger in the village, but in this case it’s not a village. Attending my new school was so hard to get comfortable with, but I managed. I made friends instantly and made new memories. Unfortunately some problems with my dad didn’t change and he would try to meddle with my mom's life and control her still which wasn’t good for my mom.

Back in Grenada where I grew up, there were limited options academically and financially. So my mom and I decided to move to the US. At the age of 13, I knew it would have been a tough transition. Whether it was academically or socially, adapting to the New York way of things was probably the toughest challenge I have endured.

In December of my freshman year, we moved into town and I transferred from Alisal High School to Everett Alvarez High School. I was confronted with a significant challenge that tested my ability to adapt to a new environment. The move had social and academic implications that I have confronted and gradually overcome. I know today that I am a better person for having gone through this challenge and that I am a resilient young woman. I am very proud to have overcome this challenge and now I am surrounded by great friends and have improved academically.

I was in foster care when I was 7 years old. This was hard because imagine being taken away from your parents at that young age and being put in another family. This was a challenge because this meant going to a different school with different kids I didn’t know. I always hated being the new kid at a school because being the new kid meant you didn’t know anybody and everybody always stared at you. Every school had a different way of teaching and so I always had to adjust and adapt to different environments. I went to 5 different homes throughout those 3 years because the families kept giving up on my brothers and I. So every time we moved we also moved schools and so I just started giving up on trying to make friends and started giving up

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

When I think about an event that sticks out in my mind as one that was very important in my life, I think about changing schools in the seventh grade. About halfway through my middle school career, I became very unhappy at my school and with life in general. Upon discussing with my parents, we made the decision that I would switch schools and embark on a new journey in hopes to appease my unhappy soul. At first, I felt as if a new school would not help; little did I know what a profound change it would have on my life.

Life before graduation was a struggle for me. I lived in a home that seemed to bring me nothing but pain and anger. I watched someone close to me die little by little every day. I did not live a normal childhood because I was a

I’ve lived in three different states and attended six schools over the past eight years. Relocating from Texas to Michigan, and later Michigan to Georgia were big adjustments for me. I missed my friends and close relatives. However, I knew I had to make the best of my circumstances. Through these experiences, I began to learn to be more flexible, become more open-minded to different traditions, and be adventurous in different parts of the country-I played volleyball, joined a dance team, and even went skiing! At school, I also focused on excelling in my classes and challenge myself like I did when adjusting to a new town.