Personal Narrative: Moving From Arizona To New York

Moving from the South to the Midwest was a huge change in my life. For my whole life I grew up to the southern hospitality and the tang of salt in the air since the beach was always less than 5 minutes away wherever I lived. Now I moved to a place where they flip you off to say hi, and the closest thing to an ocean is a sea of grass that seems to go on forever. Although I am now adapted to the change for the most part, it took me awhile to break in to the social norms of an average Midwest kids.

Moving to America, was a difficult transition for me. I had come to the realization that I wasn’t going to see my friends any time soon back in Iran and that was hard to overcome at a young age. I was alone as a child because my siblings are a lot older than me, and my parents’ had the challenge of starting over because they had left everything behind in Iran. However, that wasn’t going to get in the way of me succeeding in school. I have always been a fast learner, by the age of eight I had already learned four languages. Also, I was voted most improved by my classmate every year I was in Elementary School. This might not seem like a big achievement, but as a young student in a new country it was a huge motivation boost for me to improve every

“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.

I was nine years old when I moved to California from Japan, all the way across the world. Moving to California was quite possibly the weirdest experience that has happened to me as a child. Trying to move from a place that I pretty much spent my life in than literally going across the world without knowing anything about it was very foreign to me, however my parents used to live in california for about one or two decades.

When George came home from work he told me that he had some really good news. Now, I don't know if I would call it good news, but he said that our family needs to move to Oregon. At first I was in such shock because Iowa is such a good place for our family, but a change is always good. The government is giving all males over the age of sixteen 640 acres of free farmland. That is more land then we have right now, and the land won’t be as crowded as the land here in Iowa.

I moved to Arizona from Boston in 2014. We have moved around before, but this was different. We were going across the country. I was sad to leave everything I knew behind for someplace I didn’t really know about. We moved in July, and as August came closer and closer, I got more nervous. Would I sit alone at lunch? Would I like my teachers? As any 6th grader would be before the first day of school, I was scared and a bit nervous. I was pretty shy, always hiding myself in books. So I was relieved to find that we wouldn’t have to find our classes alone on the first day. I was dreading lunch, but I put it out of my mind. That day, in fact, I met one of my best friends. I managed to survive my first day of middle school. And the next. And the next. I even got good grades in math! I sometimes struggle, and did previously, in math.

Roughly four years ago I moved to Buffalo with my mom and two sisters, best move ever. Before then I had lived in Rochester, or to be more specific, Brockport. My childhood house was big and gray. It had a huge yard and very long driveway. However, my house in Brockport is not my home. I call home my green and white Tudor styled Kenmore house. It has a small green yard and a short driveway. It has been the best part of my life because of all the opportunities that were missed out on when you live so far away. Here in Buffalo I have the opportunity to go the high school where my mom, aunts, grandma, cousins, and sisters all graduated from. For now my job is going to that high school, but the second I turn sixteen, I will be working as a cashier at the dashes down the street from my home, a little family tradition. The reason I moved though, is hands down the most awful thing to happen to me or that can happen to a little kid, like I was at the time.

Most students don’t spend tons of time trying to memorize vocabularies, but I do, and i have been doing that for many years now. I have a normal family with parents that love me a lot, we go on to vacations if we have spare time. My new life started when my mom and dad decided to move to America in order for me to get a better education, and mostly did not want me to experience those harsh studying in China. I came to America when I was in fourth grade, and everything was really different from the world I used to be in, the environment, school, and people around me. I felt really uncomfortable at first but I quickly adapted the situation.

Growing up as a military brat wasn't easy, there were many places we had to go to and we didn't have a choice. One of those places was here ,Illinois, and I was ten when we made the move here.This move was probably the hardest thing I have ever physically gone through considering all of my mom and I's stuff was lost in the ocean because the place we moved from was Hawaii.So, when we got here me and mom both didn't have our stuff but the rest of my family did.To make matters worse my dad was being shipped out to South Korea and we didn't have a house. For a whole year we were homeless,we put what was left of our stuff into storage and moved in with grandma. As terrible as that year was, it taught me a lot about what some people actually live

My life in my perspective has been extraordinary. I have been fortunate enough to travel the United States and live in various parts as well. Each environment that I have been exposed to have differed from one another. The environments in which I was raised changes When my father received his orders. then my family and I have to move to another region of the United States. with these experiences, I have been well-rounded to accommodate to my new and unfamiliar surroundings. throughout my life, I've been privileged to see the world through my own eyes instead of reading about it end books and watching it on television. for example, Honolulu, Hawaii 2 people who have never been the entire island is a resort. but in all actuality the island experiences poverty. without me having to move every so often I wouldn't have known that but the experience of knowing that there are a big world out there very productive gains.

I was born in Bogota, Colombia where most people are catholics. Thus, I was baptized at the age of five. I also went to a catholic school from kindergarten up to second grade. However, I barely attended church because my parents were busy throughout the week to go to church. Then, at the age of nine my family and I moved to the United State.

In 2011 on a very cold December night, my dad told me something that I will never forget. My siblings and I were all sitting in my fathers very out dated apartment, eating hamburger helper and watching a movie on his small 32 inch t.v.

The first time I’ve met my parents was when I was five. When they approached me at the airport, I did not know who they were. When I found out that they were my parents, I did not know how to react — I was excited, but also scared. Standing in front of me were two people whom I listened to the voices of for the past five years and spoke casually with on the phone, but meeting them in person was a whole different story.

For years immigrants have come from distant nations to start their lives over in America. People from all over the world leave their home countries in pursuit of something better, and many find themselves on Long island. My family was among many of the refugees who fled the Soviet Union in the 80s and early 90s. Coming to America for them was a whole new world where opportunities and possibilities were endless. My mother chose to come to Long Island because of all it had to offer as far as education and jobs. Being a very diverse residential area made it the ideal place to move to. Knowing minimal English and having little money, my mother struggled for many years to build a new life. She was able to get a job, become fluent in English, finish

Progress and individualism are very much celebrated in American culture. Many people migrate to urban cities in the search of economic prosperity and to achieve the elusive “American Dream.” City life can often come as a shock to individuals not accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle; conversely it can change a person. Such change can transform a person to lose the values and beliefs they were raised with which consequently attribute to losing the bonds that they once held with their families. This is not the case with the families portrayed in Carol Stack’s ethnography Call to Home. The book depicts Southern African-American families living in rural, North and South Carolina’s towns – which migrate to northern urban cities for economic