Personal Narrative: Moving To The United States

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

I looked at myself at the mirror, drops of water coming out of my eyes like as if it was a rainy day in May. Hearing the news got me so upset and depressed. I sat outside and looked around the place that I have grown up and that meant a lot to me. When I heard that our family was moving to America I was not happy about that.I was angry with my family because I did not want to leave Ethiopia. I did not want to leave my friends and family in Ethiopia. It scared me that I had to leave my old life and start a new one. A month later, it was time to go the airport and get ready to go to the new country. I was nervous; my heartbeat got louder and louder as walked closer to the airport. As I bit my lip, my eyes were dancing to every corner, my legs were shaking, and my hands were sweating. I was sad that I was leaving the place that I called home and that I had to leave all my childhood memories. At the same time, I was excited because I always wondered what it felt like to move to a different country and adapt to a new world, culture, and language. At the airport, I was happy finally come face to face with the big white things that use to fly over my house. I was stunned to see how big they really were. All of the sudden my sadness turned into excitement and I could not wait to start a

The plane took off and were in the air leaving the place I had only ever known. I remember when my parents told me and my two brothers that we would be moving to the United states. At the time I didn’t know where we would end up or how we were even getting there. All I knew was I would be in a totally different landscape with a lot of ethnically different people whom I have never met or seen before.

Since the moment my oldest brothers moved to the United States my family knew we could not be apart from each other. Four years past, enough time to finally go start a new life with my brothers in the U.S. In between those four years I was born, my sisters would always talk about my unknown brother to me. Then they told me we were going to move. I was barely two years when we came to the U.S. It was February 25, 2004 when we said goodbye to my grandparents, mom and dads family. It was a long ride from Mexico City to Nogales, when we arrived in Nogales my brothers friend, Alejandro was waiting for us in a minivan. Alejandro told us that the toughest part was coming. He said we had to split up, my sisters and dad was going to walk through the

Coming to the United States was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was born in Dagahaley, Kenya where I lived for fourteen years. My family and I had to go through a lot to get to the United States. Most people wanted to come to the United States because life is better here then it is there. You have to be lucky to get picked and we were fortunate to be able to move to the United States. After you get picked you have to go through multiple tests over the course of about eight to nine months. If you pass the test you get to go, but if you do not than you had to stay back in Africa and would not have another chance. When I first heard we were going to America I was so excited and everything, but then it hit me and thought about it what

"Yesenia tu tienes una chispa" said a much older white haired man. At that moment how could a snot nosed brat understand the importance of words coming out of this man's mouth? A big part of me today traces back to words my grandfather so sweetly spoke to me and to the tenderness and love he shared with me. "Yesenia you have a spark" He said it to me I was raised to believe I am unique. The first time my grandfather and I were separated was when my parents made the decision to move to the United States. When you're as young as I was, you don't really understand where you're going or why everyone is crying, or the fact that your life is about to change. Coming to the United States caused chaos in my family. Those first years were hard I wasn't used to an unstable household. Later, my parents divorced that led to hate and

It’s been a little over a month since I got to America from Mexico. I live in New York City now. It’s nothing as I expected it to be people in the city are very rude, one day I was walking to work which is a clothing factory a teenage boy, who looked very wealthy told me, “go back where you come from” and “you don’t belong here.” That’s when I met the nicest woman I have ever met, her name’s Jane. She saw everything that happened, she knew I was scared of the boy and that’s when she gave me this flyer. She told me to come to her organization meeting at this church where she would help me adjust to New York. Surprisingly, the meeting was during a time I didn’t work and I heard a couple of the girls that I work with chatting about it. So, I

My mother gave me this book to write in before I left my entire family behind in Chiapas, Mexico. She told me not to be afraid and to write whenever I am feeling upset, anxious, or angry. I haven’t wanted to write this stuff down, but I do not want to say it out loud either. I moved to America last year to stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Brooklyn, New York; I was twelve then and perhaps very naive about what my life would be like in America. I didn’t know any English, but my parents told me that coming to America would help me become smarter. Better even. Unfortunately, America is not what I thought it would be and in recent times, the President is even threatening to make us leave. In Mexico, I felt that I had such an amazing life, where I was able to run around and be free. But here, I am stuck between four walls in a small one bed-room apartment. In the land of opportunity, I feel that I have none.

The environment in which i was raised on was a pretty and calm back then. I came from a not rich or medium class but a low class. That place was that i was raised where i came from is mexico matamoros tamaulipas not a really good or great place now but where i lived was the best place ever. lived there all my childhood until i was six. My parents wanted a better future for me a better education a better life for me so we moved to the united states. I still had my both parents and in still do except at that time we had bad economic situations. My dad had to head up north and look for a job in florida i didn’t want him to go especially because it would be hard for me not being able to see him. Sometimes i wouldn’t see my dad for a year or two

Have you ever thought that you would move to a completely new place and start everything from scratch? There are thousands and thousands of people moving from place to place for better opportunities, education as well as careers. There are lots of struggles that come along the road. It will be an individual’s self-motivation and encouragement that will push them forward in his or her life. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” (Lao, Tzu) and my new journey had started when I landed and started schooling here in United States. Moving to the United States and attending school here was a challenge I wasn’t sure up to, but hard work and determination, I was able to make friends and be successful.

Sometimes I can still smell the multiplicity of aromas that inhabited the first nine years of my life the erotic spices, the faint smell of motor oil. I can hear the sounds of the crowded streets of Mumbai the sounds of music and horns honking. My family and I are from Mumbai, India where my mother and father owned several small cell phone stores, and repair shops. A few of my earliest memories were going there as a child to help my father with the different task, and cleaning around our shops.

Imagine a happy place where everything was all right in the world. You have a loving family and loving friends whom you get you play with all day long until you get tired. Now, imagine that happy place being taken away from you, all in one day. That’s how I felt when I found out I was moving away from my family and friends. When I was young, I did not understand why I had to move away to a place that was completely foreign and unfamiliar. I can still remember the frustration and disbelief I felt when I was told I was moving from Philippines all they way across the world to the United States of America. I cried, I kicked, and I fussed hoping that would make a difference but it did not. It didn’t matter how I felt or whether I understood the reason, because I was moving either way. Moving from Philippines to America was a challenge for me because of the language, I had trouble fitting in and I struggled to make friends.

Coming from a warm, predictable home with a room to call her own to a corner shared with multiple other people who speak a language she was only just learning to master required a resilience I don't often see in adults let alone 13 year olds. Through these experiences and learning curves, even in the hardest moments of home sickness, frustration with communication, physical discomfort, feeling like a stranger in a strange land, Ruthie focused on what the benefit of her France experience would be, how choosing to stay the course she chose would prepare her for opportunities in the future, and kept the vision of how being a person of her word to herself above all else would shape who she was becoming and lay the foundation for how she would handle future challenges. Ruthie has gone on to travel in France again at 15 as well as living in New York during the summer months of her 16th year to participate in the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts

Growing up in a provincial Russian town with its small population, unique spirit and picturesque winding rivers, I yearned to learn and dreamed of foreign places where I could flourish. When I was a child, my parents worked long hours while I engulfed myself in American movies and dreamed of the possibilities that lay ahead. These movies showed me the freedom and opportunities that people of the United States had. I dedicated myself to become proficient in English, I rented movies with subtitles and signed up for a distant learning. Back then computers were not widely available and I anxiously awaited my correspondence by mail. I frequently visited the post office to check if a letter with my homework had arrived, it was like waiting to open

The love for a better place for their children to learn and grow, drove my parents to move my siblings and me from Nigeria to America. The adjustment to a new community and culture along with the: education system, government, currency, social norms, and language were difficult for my family to adjust to. In elementary school, I found it difficult to communicate with other students; I tried speaking to them the way the people on old tv shows spoke, but they did not “catch my drift”. As I got more acquainted with the language I began joining clubs and playing sports. I was not placed in an ESL, English as a Second Language, program because I knew just enough English to barely pass tests. I was unable to keep up with the language and vocabulary