Personal Narrative: I M Home Here In The United States

“Times of transition are strenuous, but I love them. They are an opportunity to purge, rethink priorities, and be intentional about new habits. We can make our new normal any way we want”. -Kristin Armstrong. When I heard this quote it reminds me of a specific time in my life when I moved to another country. There are a couple of events that helped me become who I am now.

As I grew up and shared the amazing fact that I was born in a different country, I was constantly asked if I was a U.S citizen. I would always answer yes and explain that my mother had my documents hidden in a bureau, but I didn't know why I was asked so frequently. I didn't pay any attention at first, but the urge to ask my parents grew stronger and stronger until one day at the age of twelve, I decided to ask my parents. That day, I received the news that would change my life forever. With tears in their eyes, I remember my parents telling me the dangerous events that they had to surpass in order to enter this country. I remember how they told me about the little girl that lost her life from dehydration as they crossed the desert and how

Living in America has its ups and downs. The different culture and people is what makes America to me. Every day I learn something new while I go to school in America. Personally, as the days go back I carless about humanity and more about myself and how to improve myself. Money has become a major need for me recently and I don’t believe in love anymore. Sometime I just sit and think what kind of person I be like if I keep living in America. I’m happy I can here for school, I don’t think I would know this must about life. And as the days pass by I learn so much more about myself that it makes me question if I ever knew anything to begin with. Unfortunately, I still wonder what life would have been like if I did my college education in Nigeria.

“Where are you from?” has been the defining question of my life, mainly because I do not have an answer for it. Growing up, this question brought me anxiety and frustration, and constantly being the new kid meant that I had to answer it frequently. I learned to assess the situation to see what answer was most appropriate. “I am from America” worked when talking to locals or non-American classmates; “I am from Colorado” was used for Americans who wanted more detail; “I’ve moved around a lot” was saved for people who expressed genuine interest, but I gave my truest answer the least even though it meant the most: “A lot of places.”

I woke up on a warm sunny Saturday morning and went down stairs and called my friend Joey Gliech and said “Today is the day!”

It was cold November afternoon when I dragged myself out of the plane and took my first step on the American soil. Moving to America was my greatest adventure and my biggest fear. Having never traveled to a foreign country before I was intrigued about the culture, religion and style of living, It was an exciting experience for me, yet at the same time, I was terrified. I was curious to learn about the culture and the country itself which I heard in abundance on television. What will it be like? Will I be able to fit in the American lifestyle? Will I be able to make friends? The questions were unanswered until I had to experience it on my own.

I remember grouping myself as only American thinking it was my birthright, and told my parents things like: "You should let me live like the other kids and give me allowance! It's not fair I just want to do normal things!" I looked different from the other kids at school but the cultural aspect was bigger than the racial aspect to me. I was too young to really grasp the implications then, and no one really talked about it to me. My grandparents lived with me for a while as a young child, and I grew up speaking Chinese at home. At preschool I started speaking English outside of home, and around this time they went back to China. In Kindergarten and later, I steadily spoke less and less Chinese at home - I had little incentive to keep learning due to lack of relatives who only spoke Chinese - and I felt the best way to develop and fit in at school was to learn English well.

I never imagined I would live in the United States. I was born in Ethiopia, and I grew up in Addis Ababa capital city of Ethiopia, but my childhood was not good because my father passed when I was 3 years old. After my father passed away, my mom helped my sister and me with a lot of things, and she raised us very well and I always grateful for that. My first language is Amharic. English is my second language. I learned English in high school. Amharic is the official language in Ethiopia. So, I came to America 2007. Here in US, the culture is way different from Ethiopia.

When we moved to america we didn't know where to start or where to go. It took us a while to settle in our little town. But after a while we were just doing what we normally did, until this man named michael gladwell. He asked us stuff like “What do you eat on a normal basis”, or “How often do you exercise. We answered honestly.

I went to the United State four years ago. At first, I was really feel out of place. The weight of not knowing English and not having any friend heavily pushed me down to depression. I did not talk to anyone. Everything in my life went downhill. I got bully in high school my first year here. Because of how I look and how I talk, people would make fun of me. It went really bad that one day. I went to school at 7am as usual, and went straight to my locker. There were a word that written in sharpie on my locker. It said "FAGGOT". My face went blank. I did not know how to react, but stood still for five minutes. After that incident, I did not trust anyone. I completely "shut down". I started to self-harm and it was not healthy at all. However, feeling the physical pain made me forget how cruel this world is.

I came here to the United States from India in May 2011. When I got her my life change a lot, and it's been really different than India, like new people around me, a new language, a different lifestyle, It's been really new for me. I came here in may and summer vacation start, that summer I was visiting new places with my uncle's and aunt's that was a really good time I enjoy it a lot. Then, summer is over, I have to go school. I started middle school here. The first day my middle school was really bad; bad because I was too shy to speak with anyone, it's maybe why I didn't know the people and the language; it was really hard for me. The few day, I didn't even like it here. Especially when it is comes to speaking front in of school or with

According to FamilyTree.com, my surname Suarez comes from the Latin term of “suerius,” which means pig herder. This makes sense because the area of Spain where the name originated from is in the north-western mountains Spain called Asturias; where farming, crop harvesting, and fishing dominates the economy. During the Spanish colonization around the world, Cuba was one of the territories that was colonized during the imperialistic events of the Spanish. Consequently, my Great Grandfather emigrated to Cuba where my family planted their roots. Not soon after my ancestors called Cuba home, corruption began to consume the island forcing those there to seek a free society elsewhere. Hence, I am a citizen of the Unite States of America.

At times it is easy to forget that I am American since both English and American cultures have several overlapping characteristics. However, I become aware of my identity whenever education or politics comes up in conversation. These are topics that prior knowledge is essential in understanding the flow of conversation. There were several instances with fellow front of house volunteers deciding schools, courses, and revising. They would talk about different universities and how they loathed revising their coursework. In my mind, I would be at lost regarding the university and its location. Furthermore, I struggled with understanding why they would have so many “essays” to revise. Lastly, I become extremely aware of my American identity when

I have led a very unusual existence during my eighteen years of life. In these brief paragraphs, I will introduce myself and what I feel has shaped my unique personality, personal ideals and aspirations.

I never cared for the United States and now they feel entitled to embark on my country. I do not appreciate their intervention and overbearingness from the United States. I felt like John F. Kennedy disliked me or felt that I was incapable of being a leader. There was not anything notable about my family, but I quickly found my interest, social activism. After getting into social activism, I eventually became a rebel. In 1953, I was part of a group of rebels who raided Moncada Barracks, which are inhabited by the Cuban army. I was captured, but while I was sitting in a jail cell for two years, I had become a national hero in Cuba. My group of eighty rebels, including me, traveled to Cuba, with the end goal being overtaking Batista and making it to the city of Havana. We succeeded, and I even gained patronage from the United States. I dethroned an ostracized leader in Cuba, and I was happily accepting the praise from Cuba and the United States (13-14).