Personal Narrative: Moving To The Dominican Republic

The pilot said, “Ready for take off!” I was dreading those words and the day in which I had to leave everything behind. How could I leave Colombia? My house? My family? My friends? My whole life?

My parents are one of the perfect role models, through their motivation and inspiration, they strongly influenced my decision to be in college. In "The Book of Unknown Americans," by Christina Henríquez, Celia, Mayor's mom said, "When we left Panamá, it was falling apart. Rafa and I thought it would be better for the boys to grow up here. Even though Panamá was where we had spent our whole lives. It's amazing, isn't it, what parents will do for their children? (57)" Based on the quote, I understand that they moved to the United Stated because of the future of their children even though they had to leave their hometown. So did my parents. At first, my mom didn't want to go to America because she doesn't know the language, the weather is too different from Vietnam, and there's no family in here except my dad and me. But

The first day of school was the worst day I’ve ever been through in my childhood time, I cannot communicate

It is hard to say goodbye. In life you have to be strong enough to handle situations you don’t want. As I grew up my parent’s always teach me the value of a family. They always say that the most important thing in life in being close of the ones you love. Family is the most beautiful gift that God gave us and we all must know that. One day I was with my parents sitting in the living room, we were eating popcorns, they tested so well, you can felt the butter and the salt, while you were eating your mouth got watery. While we were eating those magnificent popcorns My parents started to tell me that in my country I would not have any future. That’s made me really sad, but at the same time I knew they were right. I knew that before, when I was younger, but I didn’t want to pay attention and I always decided to ignore that situation. Since I was 15 most of my friends moved to other countries. Actually, statistics show that around 12% of the Venezuelan population moved from Venezuela in 5 years. The moment that I knew my friends were leaving really broke my heart in three thousand pieces and just because it wasn’t fair that for a government people who really cares and loves you, have to leave to get better opportunities. But at the same time I have to admit I was literally jumping and hugging

Mexico represent a lot to me. My family moved to Mexico when I was only 6 years old, I went to school there and spent most of my childhood and teenage years in this remarkable and beautiful country. For those and many other reasons I still have lots of good friends and family who live there. The connections are inevitable. I feel culturally connected and one of the things I miss the most is walking around the narrow streets of the towns I grew up and talking to the most friendly people around the neighborhoods buying and trying all sorts of street foods or little cravings (antojitos) as they called them in Mexico. The warm climate and going to the beach almost every week was always a plus and something to remember, since I lived near the ocean.

Can you imagine what it is like leaving your home, family, friends, school, and everything you are related to? Moving from your native country to a new one is a very tough process, specially when you are fourteen years old and you are starting your teenage life. I still remember when my parents began to talk about Panama City and I did not understand why they talked about it so much. They constantly asked me what would I do if we move to Panama, and my answer was always the same ``I will never leave my country.´´

I’m truly a fortunate teenager. I didn’t doubt at all that I wanted to come to the United States of America. My initial plan was to do as much as I could during junior year and share my findings back home like an ancient explorer. The big question was, should I stay for senior year? Would you do it? Do you have the courage? Step on my shoes for one second. Step in my mother’s and grandma’s shoes too. If I decided to stay, that implied to major things. Firstly, that graduating from an U.S high school would no longer allow me to go back and study in Mexico right away. If all of a sudden, for any reason, I wanted to quit, I would have lost my time and would have lost awesome moments next to my close friends and family. At the same time, not going to college here couldn’t even be considered. I’ve known since I enrolled in elementary school that I would attend University. I’ve always known that I wanted to be a professional. This meant at least two more years here, two years away from my beloved Mexico City. In my mom’s point of view, since I’m her only child, she probably misses more that anyone. Can you completely fill in the void of a missing Child or a Family member you

I was brought for the advantages America offered. In Mexico I saw how people tend to live with only 600 pesos a week, I witnessed how dropping out of school was seen as normal, and I saw how people are expected to marry young. I saw how 12-year-old were already acting like 20 years having boyfriends after boyfriends. To make it even more controversial they had boyfriends that were around 6 to 10 years older than them. School in general is not as supported as it is here. The government has no involvement in school expensive. The parents are expected to pay school tuition, uniforms, supplies and etc. Not being able to finish school, are the small details why my parents came to this country. They were in hope that their children would not live the life they once had. They wanted and expect better education for their children, an educated that would obtain them the opportunity for them to avoid jobs that they had. I still remember when I told my parents that I got accepted a university, the tears in my mother’s eyes and the pride in me fathers face made me realize that I was making them proud. I was making their sacrifices worth it. Once the three other acceptance letters came in, that was the conversation they would have with everyone they would see. As the first generation to attend a university, everyone supported me when my parents could not take me to the orientations my older cousins would come with

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11), a bible verse I discovered online while searching for inspirational quotes and had put up on my wall hoping to give me some form of inspiration. I remember being asked if I had wanted to move to Puerto Rico, unaware of the consequences, I said yes. “What could go wrong?” I asked myself, the reason of my agreement was to expand my first language, meet new friends and have fun. Moving out of Boston, saying my goodbyes to the dearest to me: my father, my sisters, and my nieces became such a heartbreaking realization of what I was letting go of. Moving into Puerto Rico, during the first month after I arrived, was what felt like the worst decision I had ever made. I felt miserable. I knew absolutely no one. I was scared to speak. I didn’t adapt to my surroundings and the culture itself as much as

A topic that’s very controversial to me is poverty, seeing it first hand in my home country really changed the outlook I have on my life. It shaped my dreams into achieving more for myself, doing something outstanding. It has inspired me into pursuing a tougher career choice to be able to assist all my needs in the future.

I grew up in a small town in the state of Michoacan, Mexico until a few weeks after my seventh birthday. In 2001, after six years since my father petitioned to have us come to the United States with him and finally he had received a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that his request had been approved. Being of that age, I was my mother’s companion everywhere, however, all I could grasp from those conversations was that we were going to the United States. I don 't think any of us knew what this meant or to what extent this would change our lives, not even my parents whom I thought knew it all.

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

When my daughter was three years old, her mother and her new husband decided to move to Panama City and start a new life there. I cried for days because the love of my life was now six hours away from me. Even though her mother and I never lived together, I love my daughter to death. Three months later, I was on vacation from teaching, so it was the right time to travel to the city to see my beautiful, gorgeous daughter.

First few weeks of school did not go well for me. I felt like I was a rare animal at the zoo. People would point at me, speaking the language that I do not understand, and giggle. A non-stop talking kid suddenly became mute. At the time,

My first day of school felt so strange as if I was banished to Mars. Or at least to some very far away place full of strangers where nobody speaks my language. Because indeed, nobody spoke my language on my first day of school. I was 6 years old and lost among people whom I couldn’t even talk to. How could this happen? I spent all of my childhood in Hungary, but it still felt like we just moved to another country right before me starting school. Although no such thing happened, I still blame everything on my parents.