My Family And My Life

Although, I have been taught to always be grateful for what I have, at times this was tough. My life in America began when I was two years old, and my family: my mother, my father, and I came to America. I was too young to remember anything, my father left our family of three that same year. Until I was six years old, I didn't know his face, his voice, his touch. When I went to school with my friends I felt different from them even at the young age of six. To me it seemed, they had everything: a family, a house, and a place among society. I, on the other hand, had no family members in America, lived in government housing in the urban poor, and struggled to relate to the American culture. To say I felt jealous would be an understatement.I felt

In December of 2005, my family and I came to the United States from the Dominican Republic. I came to the United States because my parents wanted to provide my siblings and I a better future. In my hometown, The U.S is considered the country of opportunities. At that time, I was oblivious and unaware of what was going on. I did not understand why I had to move across the world. When we came to United States, my family and I had to live with my grandfather. He shared his home and provided us with anything we needed. It was difficult adjusting to a new culture and environment.

They started working and over the course of time, my sister and I were born. However, my parents always kept thinking about the "U.S. project." In 1997, we got Permanent Resident Cards, thanks to my grandmother who has been in America for over twenty years. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, my parents had planned on coming to America, but they always just talked about it. I never thought they were committed to making the move. Then, in January 2000, my sister came to America to complete her studies and to settle here. She had always dreamed of living in the United States. That is the reason why she decided to move to this country. Then, in April 2002, my parents made one of the hardest and the most delicate decisions of their lives: they finally made the decision to move to America. It was not easy to make that decision because it would require my parents to leave the comfort of their jobs, their houses, their cars and their friends in France. Once the decision made, and four months later, my parents and I finally moved to the United States.

My move from South Korea to the United States was to this day the hardest, most stressful event of my whole entire life. At the age of six, I gave up the comfort of my friends, culture, and home to move to a country halfway across the world. Korea was everything I knew and loved. Having never set foot outside of the country, all my dreams and aspirations were set in Korea. Although I was a fickle child and my goals changed constantly, they all were intertwined with Korea. I was going to become a pianist in Korea and teach piano to students. Another time, I decided I was going to become a math teacher at the school I was attending. My view of the world was limited, but I was happy in my familiar, safe place. My move to America changed my whole perspective.

I knew this journey would be very different for me. I was only familiar with one culture and one way of life, being exposed to different cultures only made me more curious and anxious at the same time. Although this was a transition I was looking forward to, there was some sadness in me knowing that I would leave all my friends and some family members behind that

My family and I came to America in the year 2003, and those few years afterward made me realized the tremendous amount of love my parents had for us. Although I was only three, I saw how my father worked long hours trying to keep a young family of five comfortable and safe. He taught me the importance of hard work and endurance. My mother taught me the importance of education. We came to America because due to her receiving a student visa to complete her Masters in Christian Theology and Social Work. She would come back to from long classes and pick us up from daycare. Although she was tired, she made sure that her family was fed and well. As soon as everyone was well, she would finish her homework. Her desk and computer were located in my

Each of us had turning points in life that changed our lives completely. Moving to America was my best decision which turned my own life into a challenging adventure. I have explored myself to find out what I am passionate about and what I want to do in the future. When I compare my life before and after living abroad, there are three major positive differences: independence, time and home.

My parents wanted their kids to have a better life where they wouldn’t have to worry about getting killed one afternoon or attain affiliation with a gang at the age of 5; they came up with the idea to move us to America. At first they struggled to acquire the money because the economy in El, Salvador is horrible, but when they finally made enough to move our whole family they took the first opportunity they could take.

My parents after having me and my sister had set their hearts, and minds set on moving to the United States they felt growing up in the U.S. would give us a better opportunity. When I was nine years old they had finally saved up enough money and completed the necessary paperwork for us to come to the states and be on our way to citizenship. When we first made the move I was deeply confused and upset with my parents. I had many close friends and family that I had to leave behind I felt as if they had stripped me away from my home.

My mom brought me to America in 2002. This move was difficult as I had to leave my family behind. Up until then, I grew up in the midst of a large, extended family. I had cousins to play with and multiple adults to spoil me. Furthermore, moving to an entirely different continent where the culture and environment was different from what I was used to, did not help. I experienced quite a bit of culture shock and language became a problem. Those first few months when I could not communicate with my new classmates were lonely. On top of that, seeing my parents work so hard to build a new life in a country where we had no family to rely on, made me hate our situation. However, being an immigrant taught me some valuable lessons and shaped who I am today. At an early age, I learned to become more independent, more responsible. I had to learn to do certain tasks, such as making my lunchbox, doing my homework, by myself. I had to learn to adapt and to appreciate what we had. Each new place we moved to, I experienced something new. In Ohio, I learned what chicken tenders were. In New Jersey, I experienced my first snowfall. In Texas, I bought my first pair of cowboy boots. As I grew up, I learned to treasure what the United States had to

My family’s euphoria refueled our motivation to chase the American Dream. I finally started kindergarten after 5 months in the United States. I had already finished kindergarten in Mexico, but due to my birthday being after August and because I was yet to learn to write and speak English, I was forced to repeat kindergarten. I was learning to speak English at a surprising rate. Everything was going more smoothly for the family. Although not as an electrician, my father found a job and I helped him with some of the English I knew to fill out applications and communicate with people. I finally started to feel that life in the U.S might be worth

My mother and my father moved here to America with hope for a better future. They managed to raised five children , including me, while working here in America and sending money back home. I thought everything is easy here in America. My mother has to go to work from before sunrise till the sun rise fall. My father had to travel a lot different places in America to work. Once I got to see how my family live here in America my heart

I was born in the capital of Colombia, Bogota. At the age of six, my family decided we would immigrate to the United States in search of economical stability, a better quality of life and better opportunities of education for my brother and I. My parents were ready to leave their families, jobs, and everything they knew behind. They talked about how wonderful life in the United States would be, and found comfort in the abundance of jobs, good salaries, good schools and opportunities North America would offer our family. I then believed that stepping foot on the US was a guarantee for a wonderful life, the American dream. Unfortunately from the beginning of my journey I realized life is not easy and mature immensely in the ongoing process of achieving the American dream.

In order to pursue their idea of the American dream, my parents uprooted themselves from their hometown and crossed a short 6,380 miles to replant in a foreign country while bringing as much of their homeland as they could carry in their luggage, thoughts, beliefs, and tastes, many of which they passed on to me. This new chapter of their lives opened with them working as dish washers at a shifty restaurant in Oregon before moving to California and having me. From there, my

My experience of moving to the USA included a couple of steps such as preparing, arriving, and adopting. Moving to America was one of the most thrilling and exciting experiences I have ever had in my life. It all started after I graduated from high school. I had always dreamed of going to abroad to study in a better school to be successful in life. My dad was leaving me hints here and there that he was going to send me America for school, but I was sure that it wasn’t going to happen because getting a student visa was tough back then. However, that summer when I saw that letter in my mail from the immigration department of USA for an interview, I was speechless.