My Life As An Immigrant

Hello reader, I’m about to tell you a story of some of my life. I am not normally one to volunteer details about myself, which I’ll remain somewhat reserved or completely leave some events out of this autobiography. Nonetheless, I believe I can still make my story interesting for the reader. I was born 1979, in Tampa, Florida; which, is also the same day my biological father decided to leave my mother and I. My mother isn’t a native Floridian, but had moved there with her family when she was still an infant, and had spent most of her life growing up in Florida. Needless to say, my father leaving was not an exciting time for my mother and I. Although she was employed Jimmy Cater was president and had taken the nation into

It was summer of 2010. My parents were still married and we went up to Wichita Falls, Wichita to go see my brother Chris who was in the Military on base working. We stayed there for a week. I still remember the car ride up there. We rented a van, we had tvs in the rented van, my sister Rylee, my other brother Garrett (he was in the military too), my mom Traci, and my dad Doug, and my brothers military bag it was like a person. I still remember I had to sit in the back with that bad it was so big. Garrett put the seatbelt around the bag like it was a person. The car trip was so long but it was all worth it in the end. It was in the middle of the week and we were out on the beach. My brother Chris and his pregnant wife Ashley had a boat the water

I was born in a small ranch in Mexico, and raised in Oregon .My first year and a half I grew up with only my mother and grandmother, my father in the US trying to raise enough money to send to my mom and me . I came to the United States with my mom at the time in only understood Spanish. The Spanish language stayed with me up until I was 3 , I was the only child but my older cousins taught me a new foreign language. From the moment I learned to speak English to almost 14 years later, being a year away fro graduation its been a big struggle. Fighting against the "I cant's" and "failure" it's been a bumpy ride. Something that has really shaped my life is, as I grew up I didn't quite understand the meaning of immigrant, my 7 year old mind didn't

“Mom, will I ever be treated as a regular person? When will I be like the others without people look at me in a strange way and make fun of me, when mom? When?” Those were the questions I did to my mom almost every day after getting home from school. Fourteen years ago that my parents brought me to this country offering a better life with better opportunities than where I was born. I was seven years old when came to the United States, but I still remember the happiness I felt when I first step in this country. Throughout the years, I have realize that not everything is easy and simple as I imagined. My parents worked in the fields because of the lack of a social security and not knowing how to speak English. Many Americans do not know how hard it is the life of an immigrant, they should have a consideration for us and not just blame us for the deviance of the United States.

Humanity is ever so much more complicated than one could have ever imagined. Humans can thrive on change, but ultimately look for something to declare as home. In search of this home people travel long distances and risk everything they have. When an American contemplates the word immigrant, one imagines the countless people from Mexico crossing into our country or the refugees that hope to make this country their home. What eludes most of us, however, is the reality that most people were, at one point, immigrants to this country and that our forefathers came here exactly the same as refugees come today. What is brought to mind when I hear the word immigrant is hope and perseverance. I remember the countless people who have traveled here

It is not uncommon to hear one recount their latest family reunion or trip with their cousins, but being a first generation immigrant, I sacrificed the luxury of taking my relatives for granted for the security of building a life in America. My parents, my brother, and I are the only ones in my family who live in the United States, thus a trip to India to visit my extended family after 4 years was an exciting yet overwhelming experience. Throughout the trip, I felt like a stranger in the country where I was born as so many things were unfamiliar, but there were a few places that reminded me of my childhood.

“Outlaw: My Life In America As An Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas from the New York Times, is a narrative essay that focuses on telling a story of past events. Vargas proposes that since he grew up in America that this is considered his home. Vargas believed he would be granted citizenship if he worked harder and achieved more. His motivation of sharing his childhood journey would be the relief of him coming forward about his legal status to those who were not aware and to those who he truly cares about but could not risk sharing his story with. Vargas tone and stance attracts people who are or have already been through the same path and for those that come to America to live the “American Dream” like Vargas intended to. Vargas concludes he is trapped in duplicity and being dishonest about his legal status is destroying his character. Even though, Vargas convinces me about his difficult journey as an undocumented immigrant, his belief that coming forward with the truth of his legal status will allow him to regain his values or the trust of those who he has already lied to is unconvincing because after all those years it has become a part of his selfhood.

Being a culturally diverse person in American society implies that you have ancestors from different countries. I have two ethnically diverse Grandmothers who are legal immigrants turned citizens, and have studied the process for obtaining citizenship status in the United States, which means I can understand and relate somewhat to those who have faced the same struggles coming into the United States. In the article, My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant, by Jose Antonio Vargas, he tells his story of being an illegal immigrant and the struggles that are associated with his situation: his life as a child, struggling with integrating into western culture, his teen years, living a muted life because of his situation, and his adult life, jumping

On a random Thursday morning in the middle of October, I became an orphan. I have always been independent and mature from a young age, but all that changed on a crisp day in November when I learned what it means to grow up. Something typically marked by a Bat Mitzvah or the acquisition of a driver’s license was, for me, marked by the arrest of my single mother.

Throughout my entire life I have heard the word “immigrant” countless times, inmy childhood, in my middle school days, and especially nowadays with the controversial topic taking over social media. I’ve been labelled with this word or image ever since my birth, and yet I still don’t exactly know how I should feel about that.

On one sunny day, I was helping my mom doing chores when she pulled me over to talk to me about something important. I was confused why my mom would want to me about something important, but I listened to what she said and followed her. What she told me was what her life was like back in Vietnam. She did not have much of an education. Instead, she stayed home with her mom to sell Vietnamese yogurt every day for a living. Since I was born in America, I never thought of life was like for others in developing countries like Vietnam. Hearing from my mom's experience, it stuck with me. I learned the importance of being grateful for what I have since they are a lot of people who do not have what we have in America and it made me want to help those who are in need. I was also inspired to do whatever I

The purpose for writing this narrative is to demonstrate the things that influenced me in the past to become the person who I am today. Adapting to a new culture and struggling in academics is not something I only experienced. There are many immigrant students that give up school because they can not adapt the academic challenges or the differences in the school culture. My story can be inspiring to many young immigrant students to strive for success. I went to diverse high school where immigrants are a significant portion of the student body. One of my 10th grade friend had dropped out of school simply because the subjects were too challenging for him and his perception of being a student and an immigrant. He used to think immigrant students

My background as an immigrant from Gambia and being half Sierra Leonean; and growing up in Upstate, NY, and Nashville, TN was a struggle for me. Throughout my whole life, I faced an identity crisis. My father never came along with me and my family, when we moved to the U.S. than several years past my mother became a widow, because of the pass of my distant father. Moreover, throughout my adolescent life, I had trouble figuring out what I want to do. It was not until my senior year in high-school I felt I lost all hope. I, I didn’t apply to a single university, I decide not attend field trips, ball dance, and graduation. Merely, because I felt I underachieve. It was not until I became a voracious reader of Benjamin Graham that changed my life,

One identifier that has shaped me into the person I am is being a military brat. My father is a military officer for the USMC and his job has greatly affected my life. Since I was born, my family has moved seven times and I have lived in six different states and in Okinawa, Japan. Throughout my life, I have gone through many changes and been challenged in many ways. Theses events have made me stronger as a person. This has not only change my life; it has changed who I am.

Whether in the early 1900s or the present day 21st century, immigration to America was all about searching for a better life; looking for the opportunity to be successful. In the short story “How I found America” Anzia is much more oppressed in America; she is discriminated against in her work and her environment. Vargas in “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” is given more opportunities to better himself. Both of the immigrants have a sense of having to hide themselves in America.