Personal Narrative: My Transition To The United States

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

My family and I in 2008 moved from Trinidad and Tobago to America. We were all so excited to move to a new country. We heard about all the fun experiences and great opportunities that America had to offer. I must admit that I had mixed emotions about moving to a new country. On one hand, I was exactly happy because I was going to have an opportunity to go college and presume my dream of being a childhood teacher or child psychologist. On the other hand, I was sad because I was leaving all my Tobago friends and family

The most difficult time of my life was when I had to leave my country after  having spent fourteen years living in India. As a kid growing up in India, the most significant event in my life was my grandparents deciding I would move to America right before I would start high school. Sadness fell on my face when my parents told me, as I never imagined going to America and leaving all of my friends. There are decisions that can unexpectedly change your life. Mine was coming to a new country and adapting to a foreign environment. After learning how to get through the last four years, I already have experienced a major life change, almost how it will be in college, being separated from friends and having to make new ones.

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

When I came to the United states, it was pretty hard trying to speak and understand english,because when someone was talking to me I did not understood a single word. It Frustrated me.It was also really hard to pronounce a word because some words does not sound the same way their written.I actually did not want it to read or write anything to learn i just want it to go back where I could understand a language.My mom spoke with me about how she felt when she first came to the US I realize that nothing is impossible.

Coming to the United States for me was like a rebirth. It was a totally different life that I had to adapt to; a new language to learn and new people to meet. Frank A. Clark once said, "If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." This quote says everything I believe about hardship in life because adapting to a new environment for me was not easy. It was a path full of struggles, hardships, and disappointments. But without them I would not be who I am today.

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

I have to say, that my life now, is fairly cushy. I don’t have to worry about to many things: I own my own car, I pay my rent on time, I have a decent job. A lot of what I have now, I owe to my grandparents. They chose to immigrate into the United States from Mexico so that my Mom would have a chance at a good life.

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.

Moving to a different city or state can be a very big change. Moving to a whole other country? It changes you in ways you would have never thought possible. I remember being very vulnerable and rather powerless when I first moved to the United States. I was barely of age back then, only thirteen and I had already gone from a country with a total population of 1.2 million people stretched over only 2040 km2 of land to this new country with 318.9 million people and an area of 9.8 million km2. It felt like a whole other world, as if I were an alien who had just begun to discover the alternate universes co-existing in the mystical galaxy we all live in. At first it had felt magical and exhilarating but it wasn’t long before the realization that my whole life had changed in a split second dawned upon me. It was no longer a spectacular wonderland with seemingly endless fascinating possibilities as much as it was an intimidating maze of gloomy jungles which became more and more chaotic, suffocating me, the alien, as if to remind me that I did not belong there.

I do not really know if I returned home. The Stuttgart I came back to felt like a completely different city than the one I left. The streets are bare and the mood is reminiscent of the trenches between the bombardments and the attacks. Stuttgart was muted by the aftermath of the war. The Christmas markets that are customarily teeming with waves of people are now akin to No Man’s Land. The slight amount of citizens I do see look empty and hollow as if they just had their souls reaped by the Grim Reaper himself. None of what I thought made Stuttgart the bustling city that I loved existed. Everything was painted in the colors of war. Personally, I wished that I had not returned at all. The news that my sister Kristin had brought up on my return was devastating. My mother and my sister had died in an industrial disaster at the very factory I was working at prior to the war. The very people I had fought so hard to return to. Instead I return

Without my story of what you can so call my parents “journey” to the United States I would not be the individual I am today. My family sacrificed many things in order to give me a better future, but with this journey came many obstacles. Obstacles that have completely shaped my identity. I can always trace back the question of “Who am I?” with their journey to the United States.

September 7, 2000. This became the day I was born. This was also the day where I would start my journey into this world.

Hello my old county. I am writing you to give you inspiration to move over here to the U.S.A. I decided to move from Germany to the United States. I moved here without my family to get a job and a shelter for us to live in before they came over. The ride here was filthy. Since I could not afford high dollar tickets I spent weeks in filthy living spaces and watched the people around me become ill. When I arrived, I was amazed at what I saw. So many people arriving were lost in a crowd full of uneasiness. I asked myself questions such as, where am I going to live, what am I going to do, and how am I going to get my family over here? I was not skilled for work in the factories therefore I received less pay. Life here is not as easy as you think.

I will never forget the day when I arrived in the United State for the first time. on February 19th, 2010, I arrived with my family at John F. Kennedy International Airport. My family and I had just packed up all of our belongings and taken a long fourteen hour flight to relocate for my father’s job. Tired and overwhelmed, my family then had to drive through New York City to get to our new house. That first experience of driving through a seemingly endless forest of buildings was unforgettable and influential. As a resident of New Jersey, only an hour away from Manhattan, I have returned to the city many times and, over the years, fell even more in love.