My Family And My Life

I had always had an idea of what a cruise ship was like, but had never had the chance to experience anything like it before. That is, until last summer. Last summer, I got to experience a cruise in Puerto Rico with my family. I knew that this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and so I wanted to make the most of it. I was not aware of the memories that I would get from this trip to keep forever.

Upon boarding the ship my wife and children were separated from me. I did not know where they were or what they where going through for the duration of the ride. Nor did I know if they would be alive at the end of the trip. You see, we were among a slave ship. A ship with a crew that was so brutal, treating us in such cruel ways. I had never witnesses such brutality and neglect in my entire life.

After days of being in that horrible box, it was finally opened, my hope had come true…. Or so i thought. We move further down below the deck and to my disappointment it got a lot worse. We were chained to these wood plains and had to lay down right next to each other (every inch of my body touching someone else's). It was so uncomfortable, but that wasn’t even the worst part…. It smelled horrible, liking taking everything in the world that smells bad and mixing it up together. This was because many had vomit due to the poor conditions not only that but you had to pee right there and then. Also, since we were in the sea… everyone one was getting toss around like toys which cause many to be sea-sick. All we can do now is pray … well not even that because all our energy was gone. We didn't have energy because we didn’t get fed and when we did it was the most awful rice and beans that look so nasty it makes you want to gag. I was tired and shut my eyes for a bit… when i opened them i noticed my friend was died, it made me cry so much; but i shortly stop because a crew member unchained me and took me out of the room. I was escorted to a room filled with white men they all used me like a toy and then made me witness a man getting hit with a whip on the back. Me not being the smartest decide to go and try to help but end up getting hit myself which hurt really bad. They would do dreadful

To start off our day we all went to work and said our goodbyes to the people we know, work with, and talk to. After, we needed to go say bye to the people that we know around our home and tell them that we are immigrating to America, then we told them all the good things that America had to offer. By the time that was all over it was almost time to go to bed. Finally the last thing that we did was hope and pray that everything that was going to happen the next day, would work out well and have no problems immigrating to America. My parents and I went to bed a much earlier than normal because we knew that we had a big day ahead or ourselves. In the morning my mother woke me up at around six O’Clock and told me to get ready to leave for a long journey. At around six-thirty we left to head for the boats. When we arrived to the boats we stood there for a few moments just realizing how many people were going to America. Then, they walked up to a boat a got on. On the boat there was an instructor telling us to head to the lower part of the boat, when we got down there, it wasn’t just us riding this boat to America, it was a couple hundred people down there immigrating to America. So we sat down, on the floor like everyone else because there were no seats. During our trip to America, on the boat in the lower deck was so foul-smelling, due to how many

but what was bugging me was that every time the shuttle turned we would slide over and the shuttle would go CREEEEEEKK and the shuttle smelt like seafood and fish. After about an hour and a half we arrived at the alorsnorkel with all the 9 people we picked up with us we hopped out of the truck and got greeted by some people that work there . we followed our group to the table where we had to put on our flippers, life jackets, and our goggles. We waited for everybody to get their stuff on . then we got on the boat and drove out to the ocean between the gulf of mexico and cozumel. When we got in the boat and started going i smelted the salty water and I could taste the fish. The boat came to a stop and everybody was talking and we were all about to jump in . before i jumped in i could hear the waves rolling over more water. I could see the waves rolling over the plants and the coral. And then I jumped in. when I jumped in the snorkel fell out of my mouth water salty water was flooding my mouth and the water was going up my nose then I realized the goggles came off to so the water was burning my eyes. So I got back on the boat and put all my stuff on again. the person that worked their was talking to a family on the boat about how we might see

My life was split over two distinct culture as my family moved back and forth between Syria and the United States. My family immigrated to the U.S. in the early eighties and moved back to Syria two years after I was born. I completed my first and second grades in Syrian public schools before immigrating to the United States in 2001. I was first placed in english second language classes, which I completed in 9 months. I then continued my fourth grade in regular classrooms. These two years exposed me to various cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds. I interacted with people from all around the world, which cultivated my cultural awareness and shaped my identity. However, I was harassed several times because of my ethnic and religious background. A student once told me “go back to your country, we don’t want you here”. It had never occurred to me that I was perceived as foreign even though I am a U.S. citizen.

As I boarded the ship the first thought that crossed my head was freedom. I just hoped that the trip wouldn't take to long. I found out I would be sleeping in the steerage of the ship which is a terrible place to be in. I would have rather slept on the floor. Then it only got worse, we had to use a bucket to use the bathroom. The ship ride was horrible, I get sick easily and I knew if I where to get sick I wouldn't recover and I didn't won't to enter America sick. Day after day the boat moved side to side. I was afraid the boat would roll over, and not to mention the smell. If I had a nickel for every time someone puked or gagged, I would have been 1st class.

We found curtains from a deluxe room on the ship, and we used those as a sail. We caught fish with some floss and a stick, using some extra pieces of food as bait. We managed to stay healthy for 2 days until we got caught in a whirlpool, it was very hard to get out of but after hours of fierce fighting and a miracle we managed to get out. After a day of smooth sailing we started to have hallucinations because of heat exhaustion, I got water for the Captain and I and we had been able to survive that day. I will never forget the day that we saw land, because that meant that there was still hope. There was no better feeling than that, it made me feel all warm inside, I don't really know how to explain it. I have to be honest, I didn't think I was going to make it. I had said my prayers and thanked the lord for the wonderful life I had, I accepted the fact that if it was my time, it was my time. Once we were swimming to the land I stopped and looked at the captain and said, “I just want to thank you for saving me, I don't know what I would have done without your guidance.” With a smirk he said,”kid I could not have done it without you.” Once we made it I was brought up p the

When I woke back up we were pulling into the harbor. It smelled different, good food is what it smelt like. It was this thing called a corn dog. I went up and got one with the money I brought with me. It was delicious and I wanted more but, I knew I shouldn't buy any. I got back in line and went all the way inside this humongous building. It was bigger than the ship was. When we got in the building we had to get check-ups from doctors. I overheard someone say that they called it a six second physical. I had never heard of that, but it was a weird examination that the doctors did really fast, so I guess that's why it was called that. I saw people getting marked with chalk and I figured out that all the different marks meant different things that were wrong with the person. Next, I went to these stairs and I had no idea why. I figured out they were called the “Stairs of Separation.” They were called this because they separated the people who went into America and the other one went back into examination. I was excited when I was able to go to

I got really sick from the cold air. Alisha isn’t here with me anymore. They separated us. Every night they come over to us and take the dead bodies of the people that died of disease and starvation. They throw their dead bodies overboard. Space is very limited. I have splinters and scratches all over my body from when the ship starts. The woman next to me is the nicest person on this ship. Her name is Sylvia. She got separated from her husband and daughter. I saw them take the men away. They packed them in with leg irons.

It was called Carnival Cruise. It felt like it took centuries to board the ship, and when we boarded, we had to wait two hours before we could go to our rooms. We were on the bottom of the boat, so every time I was walking down the hall to our rooms, I felt really wavey. We got to spend a week on the boat, stopping at the Dominican Republic, and Grand Turk, Mexico. The place in the Dominican was where they shot for the movie Jurassic Park. The only crappy thing about the boat, was that I had to pay for wifi, so I couldn’t use my phone until I gave in and put money on my check-in card. After a week, we had to get off the boat, and head back home. THe drive back was the longest, most uncomfortable ride ever. My grandpa is the worst person to be in a car with. Every twenty minutes he would grab a bag of chips and start chomping as loud as possible. It would be one in the morning, and he would sleep for maybe a half hour and then start eating, so finally I bought ear plugs at a gas station so I could get some

I stayed in the steerage. It was tiny, filthy filled with people and crying babies. The trip was about a month. The experience was horrible. There were three storms that could have wiped out the vessel. There wasn’t enough foods for everyone so I went out of eating for about 16 days. Many became ill during the long voyage in cramped and dirty quarters. I had to go up to the deck with a bucket attached to a rope so I can pull out the water from the ocean to drink. I didn’t shower and was flat out exhausted throughout the whole trip.

We were sent down there because we were in the third class. When night came we were told that they were out of food and we were not going to eat today. My stomach was growling and I was starving and I hadn’t had a meal in about 6 days. All of the next week was about the same we hadn’t seen sunlight in a week, we had to stay down there. Everyone was so close down there and many people were becoming sick and I think my youngest sister was too. She had a very high fever and even though it was very hot down here she was shaking. She also was vomiting, but many people were, it was because they were all seasick, below deck the waves were strong. It was gradually getting hotter the smell of vomit was almost unbearable. Every day we would get a meal and it was a cup of soup and a small piece of bread. the days became longer and longer and I was becoming very ill myself. All of my family was getting more pale day by day. It had finally been about 2 weeks when we were called out of the ship and led to the ferry. The ferry ride was very stressful and tiring and sickening but it was getting ok because we saw the Statue of Liberty and that was amazing to see. We had finally arrived to Ellis Island after a stressful ride.

At first introduction I am seen as perpetually cheerful and high energy. Coworkers, friends and acquaintances recognize quickly that I am fiercely competitive, passionate about my work, and easily classified as Type A personality. It is clear from my Instagram account I am obsessed with the outdoors; from skiing and hiking to mountain biking and camping, I search for adventure as often as possible. My Facebook is littered with photos of my four-year-old’s choice in outfits and silly quotes showing her viewpoint on the world. (“I’m a strong, interpendent woman!” is a recent favorite.) What many people don’t know, however, is the laundry list of traumas and tragedies I have endured. I often get the shocked deer-in-the-headlights look when someone finds out both my parents died within two years of each other. When it comes out that I married young to escape my emotionally abusive mother, just to realize my husband was also abusive, the comment is usually on how courageous it must have been to file for divorce and leave with my young toddler in tow. It is not uncommon to hear the exclamation, “But how are you so happy still?” after hearing of my multiple miscarriages.

My mom once told me when I was young and ignorant, “Faith is the foundation of a beautiful friendship with the one person who will always remain by your side”. These words were expressed even more profoundly every Sunday in the echoing corridors of a small church by a priest I had yet to know or even care about. Preaching with his perplexing words in which I could only muster barely a fourth of my full attention span listening to. Thus, the term faith did not exactly resonate with me until many years later. My early years were filled with the teachings of the bible in Sunday school and later on as well in middle school during Friday night sessions. Unfortunately, my mom was an extremely strong enforcer of our faith for she was also raised Catholic from birth, but my dad on the other hand has a more scientific approach to how the world came to be. The years I spent in Sunday school blurred into an everlasting line of bleak nothingness just a ticking clock waiting till an end. Even today I do not remember anything that occurred within those taxing sixty minuets of constant bible studies it’s as though I lost the key to the inner workings of my childhood. Nonetheless, there have always been unbelievably great role models in my faith such as my mom, youth ministers, and friends who encourage me to be open to my faith. However, it’s always been my own restrictions that prevent me from furthering my relationship with God. So when my sister suffered her first severe