My Family Is My Long Term Goal

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.

My birth took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina, into a family of six including myself. Years passed, my mother gave birth to a girl and was pregnant soon after to another. My father, a strong laboring mechanic decided that it was time he moved his three boys and soon to be three girls from the home he literally built with his bare hands alone, to another country with grander opportunities, not for himself, but for his six children. He decided that with the money that cost him years of tireless work and stress he could only afford passage for himself. He set off for the United States and for months he worked day in and day out, any job he could get his hands on. He paid for our flight and had a modest, dainty apartment awaiting our arrival.

I grew up in a small town in the state of Michoacan, Mexico until a few weeks after my seventh birthday. In 2001, after six years since my father petitioned to have us come to the United States with him and finally he had received a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that his request had been approved. Being of that age, I was my mother’s companion everywhere, however, all I could grasp from those conversations was that we were going to the United States. I don 't think any of us knew what this meant or to what extent this would change our lives, not even my parents whom I thought knew it all.

I was born in Merida, Mexico. That special day my father was in prison, he would leave our family by my fourth birthday. It would take me eight years to reunite with him in America. With two sisters and a single mother, I became the man of the house at a young age. Neither of my parents finished a high school education. I held my first job at age seven cleaning windshields at stoplights for any available change, in an effort to alleviate my mother’s burdens. My life experiences have taught me resiliency, hard work, and determination.

It was July 25th, 2003 when the first Ciudadana was born, seven pounds three ounces at 3:28 pm. I was the joy of my parent’s, brother, tias, tios , and primos ( aunt’s, uncle’s, and couisins. I was the one that had a chance, first generation. My parents describe it as an emotional experience. I was my Father’s first child and my moms only girl. It was in that room where history was made for the Mora Hernandez Morales Martinez family. The hardest part is that none of my grandmothers were there to see me growing up, they were at “home”

My family moved here to the United States in 1989; from Eritrea, located in east africa. My father lived in the largest city in Eritrea, named Asmara and my mother lived in the second largest city named, Keren. My mother made an hour and a half trip to school everyday. My parents met when they were only 16 years old. In 1988 my mother Kudusan gave birth to my brother Michael. My parents planned to have more kids but they wanted to provide a better life for a family. My parents decided to move to the United states where they didn’t know anyone, they didn’t have a job, and they didn’t know a lot of english. They moved to the states with just enough money to last them an apartment for a couple months while they looked for work. My father found

I came to the United States on October 1st 2009. As an eight-year-old, I didn’t realize the changes my life was about to go through. I would always dream of coming to the united states because of the amount of opportunities that I could have here, that I could never have in El Salvador. Although, I didn’t comprehend that would mean leaving my whole family and making such a huge change in my life. Growing up in El Salvador I got used to depending on my family and having their support no matter what. After I moved the changes were really hard for me: Not having my family around, learning a new language, and getting used to a new lifestyle; took me some time to get used to.

I was born in Kerala, India and was raised in Chicago, IL. I came to America at the age of three hoping for a better future. My father came to America first, and he lived with my Aunt who had three sons. After two years my father saved enough money to bring my mom, sister, and I to the US. During this time he would work as a dishwasher at a nursing home to support my family. After a month of living with my Aunty and her kids my dad found an apartment to rent. Eventually, we moved into a tiny one-bedroom apartment with my family. That was the hardest time period for me due to language barriers. My sister and I started to learn English. However, my parents were struggling to learn a new language so we would have to go everywhere with them to translate. Another, difficulty that we faced was financial issues. At that time we were making ends-meet and we were scraping every penny that we got. Afterwards, my mom got her CNA license she started working two jobs when I was only four years old. Even till this day she is still working two jobs to support the

Driver Readiness Page 2 of 10 Physical Readiness When you drive, you get information from all of your senses. You see, hear, smell and feel the motion of the vehicle - all of this input helps you to be aware of your driving environment, to predict what might happen, and to assess how to react. This information is processed by your brain and keeps you aware of changing situations. Sensory input helps your brain understand and decide when to accelerate, steer or brake. You also need to be in general good health with no injuries or illness that might prevent you from operating your vehicle safely. Vision Vision is the primary sense used in driving. About 90% of the information required for safe driving relates to vision. Since 90%

Let us begin from the very beginning, I was born in Medellín, Colombia on May 29th of 1996. I do not have biological siblings, nor did I lived long with my father, since he moved to the United States when I was quite young and I could barely remember a thing. Most of my childhood, my mother and I tried to visit him in the United States as often we could—and as often as our pocket would allow us. In fact, we tried on several occasions to remain in the country (U.S.), but our nostalgia for our homeland was greater

Way before I ever existed, my parents met in Etzatlan Jalisco, Mexico in the month of October. A small town located near the capital of Mexico, Guadalajara. They dated for about two years before my parents decided to come to the United States. When they moved to the United States, they lived in Mount Airy, North Carolina with my current Godparents for about a month. After a month passed by my parents had moved to Virginia, where they stayed living in their own trailer throughout the pregnancy stages my mother was experiencing. Meanwhile, each day both my mother and father worked outside at a field harvesting peaches and tomatoes.

I was born and raised in Cuba. My sister and I were raised by a single mother. Since my mother does not have a high education level, I am the first person in my family with the opportunity of obtaining a bachelor degree and enter medical school. Consequently, she could only offer restricted support for my educational development. However, she always strived to support our family. Nevertheless, I began to work to provide for them as soon as I finished high school. Therefore, I could not attend to the university at that time. Soon after, I got married and had my first child. Then, I moved to the United States of America with my husband and child due to economic reasons and to pursue the American Dream at the age of 26. Then, I got pregnant with

I was born and raised in Jerez de Garcia Salinas, Zacatecas Mexico in 1996. I acknowledged the fact that both my parents had been able to attend college and worked as professionals because not many of my childhood friends were able to say the same about their parents. My mother had studied biology to become the well-known Bio-pharmaceutical chemist she still is, and my father had studied medicine for a long period of time to become a medical doctor. I felt truly blessed for both my parents, and I felt like my family had come a long way considering how my maternal grandmother was nearly seventy years old and had never learned how to read, write, or even count numbers to ten. However, I learned that life tends to happen and it does so in curious ways. My father currently works at a print-screen factory thanks my uncle, one of his nine siblings. My father has been in the US for as long as my younger brother, Erik, has lived for which is now 12 years. Our parents are still married, yet no longer together.

While I was reading some quotes online, one quote stood out in particular. Don’t ask me who Kelly Rudolph is but when she said, “Taking care of yourself makes you stronger for everyone in your life… including you,” she was speaking directly to me and the timing was impeccable. I want to be resilient and capable of helping everyone around me. Well, maybe not everyone, but I want to do what I can. Recently, I realized that I had to start taking care of well being and myself in order to care for others. Getting to that point in my life where I am situated and stable so that it becomes easier for me to do more for my family is my long-term goal.

“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” – Ayn Rand. It is important that we learn to care for ourselves physically and emotionally. Every individual needs to make sure we have lived enough for ourselves before we can live for others. Although