Personal Narrative: My Education In Colombia

Each house-- painted a very vibrant, dazzling color, purple, orange, yellow, green, and pink. I had never seen houses like that in the United States the usual house colors are gray, white, tan, blue, very dull colors. The sight of these vivid houses was just a small glimpse of this beautiful country. As I nervously traveled without my family for the first time the lush terrain of Costa Rica dotted with colorful houses welcomed me.

My parents realized the problem and made a bold decision to leave Colombia by moving to the United States, where possibilities were many and success was possible. We were in search of “the American Dream” that every immigrant is trying to live and make into a reality. When we first arrived here in the United States, New Jersey to be precise, I felt, even as a child, that I was in a new world. I felt as if someone woke me up from my nightmare and put me into a better life, as if my eyes were opened because I had been living in a dark room with no light for my entire life. It was so great for me as a kid to witness these extraordinary changes that the United States offered. I felt like I was finally in a place where I

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?

Throughout my educational experience I noticed the discrepancies with regard to the advantages my peers possessed. In high school as I began exploring what career I wished to pursue, I experienced inferiority as my classmates who’ve taken the ACT three times, visited college campuses, and have had resumes ready since the 6th grade unintentionally mocked my lack of college-readiness. However, my ignorance wasn’t intentional, my parents never reached a high school education in Mexico, they couldn’t pass down SAT tips or acquire internship opportunities for me. I realized it's vital to pick up the pace to avoid being left in the dust akin to countless others in my situation. Henceforth, this statement resonates with my experience, I interpreted

I arrived in United States of America four years ago from Ethiopia. I lived all my life in small city named Hawassa. Being born and raised in a small African country, Ethiopia, I didn't get the chance to grow up with American culture and tradition. Everything is different back home starting with having fifty students in one class. Everyone almost compete with each other trying to be number one. Having no experience in America, my first week in senior high school was different to me from the class schedules to lunch times. In Ethiopia, we didn't go to class to class every time we have different classes. We always stayed in same class throughout the year and only our teacher come in to teach. Everyone in the school had same lunch time. Education

This question drove me back to high school. I attended a military school back from my home country, Ecuador, we only where surrounded by males. It was not difficult for me to cope, because I was in my comfort zone. However, I moved to New York City 10 years ago and I am still in the process of adaptation. I am still seeking to develop coping skills to adapt to my new environments, work, school, friends. Similar, I wanted to fit in and I seek for people that look, think and come from my same backgrounds. But, I did not give myself the opportunity to look for other friends. I even isolated myself. Once I started to give the chance to other people I got in trouble, because they want to use you, people want to take advantage of you one way or another,

Let us begin from the very beginning, I was born in Medellín, Colombia on May 29th of 1996. I do not have biological siblings, nor did I lived long with my father, since he moved to the United States when I was quite young and I could barely remember a thing. Most of my childhood, my mother and I tried to visit him in the United States as often we could—and as often as our pocket would allow us. In fact, we tried on several occasions to remain in the country (U.S.), but our nostalgia for our homeland was greater

I was born in the capital of Colombia, Bogota. At the age of six, my family decided we would immigrate to the United States in search of economical stability, a better quality of life and better opportunities of education for my brother and I. My parents were ready to leave their families, jobs, and everything they knew behind. They talked about how wonderful life in the United States would be, and found comfort in the abundance of jobs, good salaries, good schools and opportunities North America would offer our family. I then believed that stepping foot on the US was a guarantee for a wonderful life, the American dream. Unfortunately from the beginning of my journey I realized life is not easy and mature immensely in the ongoing process of achieving the American dream.

When I was seven years old, I emigrated from India to the United States. Coming to the states, I experienced a culture shock due to the different types of people, customs, and education system. The first time I stepped in the states, I saw people from all different nationalities, races, and ethnicities; a whole different type of world that was inconceivable when I lived in India. An eventful part of my life was transitioning from the school system in India to the school system in America. The expectation of a student and child in the United States was vastly different to the expectations placed by society in India. Sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness enabled me to understand how

My heart raced uncontrollably as I waited for my turn to come. I was sitting, for the first time, in a classroom in the United States, surrounded by people who were at least 2 years older than I was. Professor Knapp had asked for each one of us to stand up and state the reason why we were taking the Entrepreneurship course that summer at the University of Southern California. I thought I was prepared to answer what seemed like such a simple question, until I heard the responses that my fellow classmates were giving. “I want to expand my apparel business to other states” “I want to make even more than the 70 thousand dollars I made in the stock market last year” “I want universities to encourage the use of the app I built”. What was I supposed

The first year living in America, I went to fourth grade at a local public school. I was ostracized from my peer groups and bullied because of my Asian features and my limited vocabulary. It was a new beginning, they said, a second chance, a better opportunity. Yet I felt trapped, betrayed, and lost.

My whole family and I were devastated by the sudden death of my uncle Ryan. He had been sick with what we had thought was the flu, but later realized that it was pneumonia. I believe that we learned so much from this experience and were able to come closer as a family. As a result of my uncle’s death, my whole family decided to take a get-a-way trip to the Dominican Republic during his birthday and Christmas. While I was there I learned a very important lesson; I am blessed to live in the United States.

I have come to associate myself with the identity of an American Hispanic. When I was young, I never thought of my identity. I always thought everyone was equal and there were no distinct ways to stereotype a person. An event that helped me realize my identity was a trip to Venezuela where my family is from. Even though I was born in the United States, I met several different family members on this trip and saw so many different cultural views and sites that I had not seen in the US. In Venezuela, everyone speaks Spanish, and there were so many different types of foods like “Arepas,” which is a type of food made of ground maize dough, a staple where I’m from.

They say home is where the heart is and I’ve found out to be very true last year. I stayed in Palacagüina, Nicaragua for three months with an absolutely wonderful family with four of my friends. The five hour bus ride up to the dry dusty Nicaraguan mountains made me think this was quite an uneventful place. Don’t get me wrong.. Palacagüina is quite a boring place but the people there are so real and so truly amazing and it brings so much light to that city. Nicaragua has a way of making everything brighter. As soon as we met our family we were staying with they made us feel right at home and apart of their family. They started loving on us like my parents or any of my family would, which was so comforting.

Moving to a new country is very difficult for every person, even more, if it does not have anything in common with your origin country. Crossing borders, taking airplanes, and risking your life can become part of the immigration process. In this essay, I am going to explain the history of how I get out of Cuba. Also, I will be explaining how I reached this country. It was hard, but not impossible, and it was paid off already.