My First Time On The Airplane

I remember the day I first came to America. I was in the LAX airport, looking around the totally strange place which was full of strangers. All I could hear was the strangers' buzzing. I was upset about leaving all of people I knew and loved behind me to follow my father, mother and, sister here where we could find better "educational opportunities". I had grown up being around people who used the same language as me and had black hair and brown eyes. I spent my entire childhood in Buwtal Nepal until 2010. On April 27th 2010, I departed from Tribhuvan International Airport with my lovely parents and sister. My uncle was receiving us at the Airport. I still remember landing in New York around 8 o’ clock in the morning and that fresh smell in the air with the start of a whole new life.

Living in the United States wasn’t any easier for my dad. Having no parents meant he had no permanent home. He lived with his sponsors that helped him come to the United States. My dad knew very little english and was enrolled into high school. There he and many Hmongs were discriminated by other students. After graduating High School my dad received his first job where he worked for minimum wage. Even though having a job my dad still had no permanent home. He moved in with his uncles that treated them poorly. My dad had to sleep in an attic that had a broken window in the harsh Minnesota winter. That night it was twenty below zero and my dad had three thick blankets on still struggling to stay warm. After thirty long years our family has came a long ways. Today we are fulfilling the American dream in the natural state of Arkansas.

The first day in the United States is one of the best day and most thrilling days in my life. My father and my older sister move to Malaysia to get a job and support our family due to financial difficulty and lack of job opportunity in Burma. After a few years, my father and my sister were able to enter as immigrant and they were sent to the United States as immigrants through United Nation. After being apart with my father and my sister for more than a decade, my parents decide to move completely to America where more opportunities are available for a brighter future. My family faces many obstacles during the process of migrating to America. Despite all the struggle that are on our way, my family finally arrives in the United States and face major changes in life.

America is often known as the land of opportunity, a place where you can be free. Many Immigrants came to America so that they could have a greater possibility at succeeding in life. Immigrants took a leap of faith when coming to America, for some it worked out well but for others they had a difficult time here. Despite the struggles that the immigrants encountered such as; standing out from others, being separated from their families, and breaking their culture, the immigrants are still grateful to be in America because they were in better conditions than they were in their home land. When viewing interviews or looking at an immigrant’s perspective you get many responses to being in America, some major things that stood out

Moving to the United States was a difficult experience for me. At first I felt like I had no family. I only had my daughter and my husband. But things have changed for

I remember the day me and my family had left. It was one of the most emotional events of my life. I couldn’t believe I was going to become an American citizen. As we got closer and closer to the border, my heart pumped faster and faster. I felt like if I were in a dream, where as I was unstoppable. After the 10 hour drive to the border, we had arrived. I was a bit nervous at first. I kept thinking what if the customs didn’t let us go through, what if they

During the summer after I turned thirteen, I went on a vacation that changed my entire perspective on life. “Americans are so spoiled.” I remember hearing my mother proclaim this numerous times growing up. I would shake my head or roll my eyes every time, since I never quite understood what it meant. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to. I grew up in the suburbs in a middle class family. I never wanted for anything. I heard the stories of my mother and her siblings growing up; they lived in filth, they occasionally skipped meals, all seven kids slept huddled together on concrete floors. I heard those stories as if she was saying, “…I walked a mile to school, uphill both ways…” I never could have imagined the reality of what the stories truly meant until I visited my birthplace, the Philippines, for the first time.

Growing up as the child of parents who immigrated to the United States and being an immigrant myself, I realize the challenges that we continue to face. The current political stance on immigration in the United States of America is not in our favor, but regardless I see the U.S as the land of opportunity compared to the town I left behind in Xochipala, Guerrero. Being an undocumented student can be perceived as negative thing by others, but coming to the United States, has made me the responsible, ambitious, resilient, sagacious, and loquacious young man I am today.

My parents realized the problem and made a bold decision to leave Colombia by moving to the United States, where possibilities were many and success was possible. We were in search of “the American Dream” that every immigrant is trying to live and make into a reality. When we first arrived here in the United States, New Jersey to be precise, I felt, even as a child, that I was in a new world. I felt as if someone woke me up from my nightmare and put me into a better life, as if my eyes were opened because I had been living in a dark room with no light for my entire life. It was so great for me as a kid to witness these extraordinary changes that the United States offered. I felt like I was finally in a place where I

Arriving to the United States, to be more precise Houston, Texas. Big, green house with only three rooms for two family’s. The people there were amazing in a day they donated food and supplies enough to survive for a week. My parents struggled to starting us off. We barely had anything. We were a big family with needs. And slowly but surely we had start to adapt. Only 3 minute showers. If

When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they

Just like many immigrant families, my family had to encounter many adversities in the United States. My mother had to live the harsh experience of walking long hours and starve as she battled to cross the border of Mexico and the United States. Nothing, not even the fact that she was 5 months pregnant was going to stop her because her dream of giving me a better life was stronger than any hardship. My father was a legal resident of the United States but during this period of time it was very hard for an immigrant person to aspire for a good job. He was destined to work in the fields for many years. I grew up and went to elementary school and since my father was working out in the fields I was signed up to the Migrant Program. As a small elementary

“Brrrring” rang the alarm. When I woke up I had to take a shower. I woke up around 7:30am just before my grandma came to pick us up(my brother Chris, sister Megan, My mom, and I). We were going to Florida to go down to Disney. All of us are riding in two airplanes down to Disney, and this will be my first plane ride that I went on. My grandma picked us up at our house and the airport is an hour away from us. When we got to the airport it didn’t take long to get through the security to the wait room before we had to go on the airplane. We waited for about an hour for it to arrive and be al set to go.

My parents did not come to San Diego with a lot of money, they only had ten million dong when they came, which to me sounded like a lot but my mom laughed and told me it was a thousand dollars in the U.S. For my parents, this meant they would go homeless in two months if one of them did not find any sort of work. For the first month, it was very difficult for them to find a job because they did not know how to find one. My mother would tell me how my father was a very strong man and yet no one would hire him because he would not know what to say during the interview. My mother would tell me how there were many nights she would fall asleep crying because she would think back to Vietnam when she was with her family and friends, where she did not feel limited or restricted by anything but money, and how now that she was here in San Diego, it was not only money but also her opportunity to socialize and communicate with many of the people around her. Even with my father by her side, she felt helpless and excluded from the community, like she no longer had a voice. Fortunately, near the end of the first month, one of the Vietnamese neighbors actually noticed my parents and greeted them. This man had a family and welcomed my parents greatly. He even helped my father find a job and get access to government services such as rent assistance, Medi-Cal and Food Stamps. Many immigrants share the same experiences my parents

When I was seven years old I went on my very first holiday abroad, to