My Personal Experience : My Childhood Experience

One of my personal experiences that I had was when my family decided to move from New Jersey to Florida. I never planned on moving with them but my mother basically forced me into moving with them. It wasn’t really all that moving stuff because the new house was actually pretty nice, it was just I had all my friends there and I was doing well in school. Nothing I said convinced my mother so after a week of packing we was off to Florida. The first week being there was a horrible week. Nothing was going right for me, I missed the school bus for a whole week, dropped my milk on my new shoes, and tripped over nothing in lunch. It was just trying to move back but parents always have this life lesson speech about trying to make new friends and try to get used to being here until we move again. It’s been about a month since we moved to Florida and I met about zero friends but I got used to living here since I’ve found something that interested me as an after school hobby and that was fishing. There’s barley any lakes or ponds in New Jersey so fishing wasn’t really something you do as a time waster. I usually fished right after I got home but on that day it was rainy and it wasn’t really a good time to fish so I just decided to practice my free shots until it started raining hard. I think I was outside for about 20minutes and suddenly a couple kids from my new school asked if they can shoot

“I hate your Arabic!” I snarled in my broken English. My mother stared at me in confusion while I seethed about my heritage internally. For whatever reason, this toxic state of mind stuck with me through my elementary-school years. I promised myself that I would strive to become like everyone else and slowly began to erase my Lebanese culture from my mannerisms.

I loved the songs, the dances, the numbers, and letters. My language is so important to me. Because I was born in the US, I would imagine all of the cities in Somali, from all the stories I heard from my family members. My mom would tell me all about her life growing, about her family’s cow farm, going to the city market and the one time she went to Lido beach in Mogadishu and swam in the Indian Ocean. I couldn’t wait to go to Somalia. Then I started middle school, and the rules of the classroom changed. Suddenly we weren’t allowed to talk in Somali. The argument was that if students were allowed to use their first native language in the classroom, it would impede on their learning of English as their second language. At the time in my school, there were many students who were new to the country. They came to this decision came to because of the pressure of the ESL teachers, who were apparently frustrated by the lack of “learning” in their classes. My classmates and I were so confused, why did it matter to her if we spoke Somali during lunch break? She already made the ridiculous rule of no Somali in her class, when she was teaching. Now we couldn’t speak our language all day it seemed. For some strange reason, she believed everything was about her. That when we spoke Somali we were talking about her. She would call in an EA to translate for her. But we never let her stop us, we just invented new words or used opposite

I did not get the chance to attend school at first because I was born later in the year; so, there I was; four years old and I didn’t know a word of English. No one truly knows how difficult it is to come to a country and not be able to speak the language; however, the time had come, and I attended kindergarten. I was tortured and ridiculed because I spoke a “funny” language; kids can be so cruel. I felt trapped in a country where Arabic was not understood. Tears would roll down my face, as I could not get a word across efficiently; nevertheless, I did learn English. It took me some time, but that was just one barrier I had to overcome. I had

I was born in Egypt, an Arabic-speaking country. I was living in Egypt my entire life. I went to school there: Elementary and middle school. When I was young, I had the hard time to speak or talk and that was my biggest issue because I had to go to school late. When I went to elementary school,

Being born as an Arab minority in Nazareth, Israel made me experience different events and feelings in at an early age that I will never forget forget until this day. Every time I would go for a trip outside Nazareth to a near non-Arab cities with my school I would feel the tension and the specious eyes on me and my classmates as if we did something wrong, because we spoke little Hebrew due to our age and Hebrew being our second language and Arabic is the first language. Therefore, communicating with the people in those cities was a bit challenging to a fifth grader child, such as, buying food to eat lunch, asking where the restroom is, etc.

Living 18 Years I can confidently say I have learned a lot of things that transformed me into a person I am today. Whether I learned it in school, Sports teams, or at home, I will benefit from these experiences throughout my life. But the most experienced that transformed me would be Moving to the United States. It was hard at first adapting to new culture, language, and new friends. After the first few weeks I didn't want to do it no more, I wanted to move back to Egypt, but my mom was telling me to be patient.

After we got off of the flight from Guangzhou to Korea we waited for around 3 or 4 hours to board another plane to Los Angles. On this flight everyone spoke English. I remember that I didn’t speak any English so when people try start a conversation with me I would have no idea what they are talking about, and try to use my broken English to tell them that I don’t speak and English “Sorry no English, Chinese.” So on that whole flight it was around 12 hours all I talked to was my mom, because we were the only ones that spoke

I am a firm believer in the fact that even the smallest of experiences can contribute to a person, though the way in which they contribute is up to the eye of the beholder. Speaking educationally, one of the most influential experiences I have had was when I transitioned from homeschooling to public school in my third grade year. As a kid, I was very shy and unsocial with people I didn't know. When I was put into public school, the curriculum was difficult, the punishments didn't seem to really punish, and the things the teachers asked me to do seemed pointless. For instance, my third grade teacher required that we read books, took tests, and accumulated 'point' for each quarter, which determined our grade. This didn't make sense to me, why couldn't I just read my books? I do not believe my parents sheltered my siblings and me too much, because I was considered to be fairly mature at a young age. The elementary way of getting kids to do things by using 'points' didn't make sense to me, among other things. Adjusting to the new system of learning was greatly difficult. My third grade year was off to a rocky start, my report card proving that with a couple C's and one D. In fourth grade, I had a phenomenal teacher who I consider to be one of the greatest teachers of my schooling because he did not have the strange punishment of being

To further identify with my cultural heritage, over a course of three years, I taught myself to speak the Arabic language.

At five years old, leaving behind my parents and my whole life back in America was quite a scary experience for me. My mom later told me that as she dropped me off at school, I stood at the school gate, I looked emotionally bewildered as I waved goodbye. I was led away from the gate by my Didi, the caretaker of me and five other girls in one dorm room. Being shy at the time, I let my Didi introduce me to the other girls in the room. Most of the girls knew few words in English, but they all spoke Gujarati, which was foreign to me. I did not want to be the “new girl” that no one talked to because I was different than everyone else. I soon learned that the girls in my room were also feeling the same way I felt about entering a boarding school. I learned that they were

Friday September 13, 2013 was my worst experience ever why? Cause it was the day I lost my mother she decreased about 4 years ago on Friday September 13, 2013 she had an asthma attack furthermore it’s not a day goes by that I don’t miss her. It was hard for me when I first find out she had passed away in yet I was still young and still in Middle school, but I knew my life was about to change by cause of losing my mother will change the way I see the world. I would characterize my mother's as a beautiful, well-educated woman. My mother’s carried me for nine months, gave birth to me , she was the first person I have seen when I opened my eyes, fed me when I was hungry, didn’t get no sleep for months when I woke up in the middle of the night crying, change my diaper, watched me smile every time I seen her face, she saw me when I first started to crawl, when I took my first step, said my first word. She was always there when I needed her, especially when I was sick. When I was cheerless she was always there to make me laugh. When I needed advice she was the only one I could talk to rather than my father. She was a strong, loving, and caring mother who I always knew that was on my side, she would do anything for me and my brother and give us the perfect nurture that made us the women and men that we are today. She was the most lovely women I ever knew moreover, she always was a big part of my life and now that she had left me I can’t talk to

For the first time in my life I was going into a school where I don't speak the language, nor do I know anyone. I had no idea what was going on as my father brought me to a building where I was led to a classroom where there were other children my age that all looked at me. I had no idea on why I had to come here and I desperately wanted to go back home, but unfortunately he had to work and left. I was left there at a

When I think of my own personal past experiences, I think of the most significant events and most likely think that those are the times that have shaped you as who you are today and who you are in the future. When my grandpa had passed away there were major effects that my family and I had faced. Difficulties like not being able to sleep at night and having lost someone who meant something special to everyone. When I think about the smaller challenges I have faced in the past and throughout my life, I can start to put together that even the most insignificant events that have happened in the past could make a significant impact on the person I am in my near or far future. Occurrences like going through broken bones, losing friends, or even a gym teacher might have a greater force than I may have expected.

It is difficult to write about my life—not because I do not know what to say, but because I am often fearful of sharing my experiences and having them impact how people view me. My identity and upbringing are not necessarily unique, but I have been in situations that society tends to be uncomfortable with. Repeated sexual assaults, psychological abuse, neglect, and financial hardships are factors in my life that I tried to forget when I started college. Now that I am at the end of my undergraduate education, I realize that the obstacles I faced in my early life will never be forgotten. Consequently, I feel that it is important to share this information, even though it is painful to do so, because the last four years have opened my eyes.