Why I Didn 't Get Up With My Friends? Essay

My parents would tell me that in the near future we will be living in America and that here we’ll find peace and success. All the necessary proceedings to start our lives in America were being done. I was a girl with big dreams, and I knew that America is the land were dreams come true, so I was thrilled to know the decision to move was concrete. When the day to depart started getting closer, I was full of mixed emotions. I was eager to live in the States and accomplish my dreams, but the thought of leaving my friends and part of my family behind was very

For my parent’s, language was and still is a constant struggle doing things that seem easy to most people can be difficult for them. Things like ordering food at a fast food restaurant and asking for help at the grocery store seem may easy for most people but can sometimes be challenging for my parents. My brother and I try to help as much as we can by translating. I found it extremely helpful since it helped me stay connected to both languages. Now it is not as hard for my parents since they have picked up a lot of the language and there are different recourses.

I knew this journey would be very different for me. I was only familiar with one culture and one way of life, being exposed to different cultures only made me more curious and anxious at the same time. Although this was a transition I was looking forward to, there was some sadness in me knowing that I would leave all my friends and some family members behind that

At first, speaking English was a bit difficult because I did not feel confident using it with others. The most advanced students sometimes made fun of my English. The students who spoke my own language made more fun of me than the ones who were fluent in English. The teasing by the students made me feel embarrassed and shy to speak the English language, giving me a fear of being made fun of or looked at differently. Practicing the English language with my own siblings and playing with the neighborhood kids who already managed the language gave me more confidence to speak English. Taking Spanish courses in school was also an advantage, which helped me to get better at my native language and kept me from losing it.

At first, my reaction was somewhat neutral, not even panic or shivering. I didn?t know how to feel. I didn?t immediately realize the effects that this major change would have on me. I mean that I cannot believe right away, this happens too fast. I didn?t know how it would feel to live in a completely different country and new house. I didn?t instantly acknowledge the effect that leaving my friends would have on me. I didn?t anticipate the constant emotional frustration of being forced to leave my closest friends. I didn?t know how it would feel to be the new kid in school. I did not even know how to speak and write English at that time. I cannot image that I have to restart everything in my life. And I was too scared to think about the difficulty to fit with all the new things around.

It wasn’t all bad, from my childish perspective I thought, “Hey, they talk just like on TV, I can do this,” and with making a few friends, I came to use and practice the language as if I had been born into it. However, the one that struggled was my sister. Again, none of the schools offered any bilingual courses, and she was five grade schools ahead of me. At first she seemed to be doing okay, but at some point she would come home crying of frustration. In Mexico the grades are set from 1- 10, a 10 being the equivalent of an A, which she always used to get. However, her first year in a completely different country with a different language, she struggled, mad that the only thing impeding her from being successful was the language

I will have to overcome separation from family and friends. I could get homesick by trying to overcome this obstacle. This would relate to how Odysseus has to leave to go to war for his kingdom with a few other men. Odysseus has to leave the day after his son is born to fight in the Trojan War for his family and kingdom, therefore he had to leave his kingdom and most importantly his wife. Odysseus tells his wife if he isn’t back before his son grew a beard for her to promise to move on. This situation is much like mine; I would have to leave my family in order to travel the world , it would be a hard obstacle to overcome, distance from family could keep me from going. I can not let my separation anxiety keep me from pursuing my

During the summer after I turned thirteen, I went on a vacation that changed my entire perspective on life. “Americans are so spoiled.” I remember hearing my mother proclaim this numerous times growing up. I would shake my head or roll my eyes every time, since I never quite understood what it meant. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to. I grew up in the suburbs in a middle class family. I never wanted for anything. I heard the stories of my mother and her siblings growing up; they lived in filth, they occasionally skipped meals, all seven kids slept huddled together on concrete floors. I heard those stories as if she was saying, “…I walked a mile to school, uphill both ways…” I never could have imagined the reality of what the stories truly meant until I visited my birthplace, the Philippines, for the first time.

Being separated from English speakers in Pre-kindergarten, translating English to Spanish for my family, ,making scavenger hunts at La Pulga to find affordable clothes and furniture,looking for books in Spanish for my Abuela so she could have something to read, waiting for my parents to come home from long work days, watching I.C.E vans appear at my neighborhood on my way to school, being told that I'd end up pregnant before I even got a chance at going to college and that I shouldn't speak Spanish because I'm in America, I was very conflicted with how I saw my family and background.To be Hispanic was no different that realizing that once the word is broken down, His-Panic, was nothing more than something shameful.This was my world, my childhood

We arrived on a day where the sky was pale, and the people’s faces seemed very weary. I convinced myself that everything will be fine by repeating some positive thoughts in my head. The conflict in Iraq was pretty aroused most of the time, and even though my parents and I were Iraqis, people there still looked at us as foreigners, because we did not live in Iraq long enough. However, it was very hard to set an appointment for the passport process, so we waited about six days for it. It was not a pleasant waiting because there was no electricity, for we had to deal with the 120 Fahrenheit weather. My parents knew how difficult it was for me to stay there, even for a short period of time, but no solution they had. I have big dreams to achieve, I also have a big love for my family, and I was not ready to suffer if something would happen to them because of an explosion or a

I was devastated I didn't want to leave my friends and family. It was a big part in my life. I faced a lot of problems I didn't want to talk to anyone about how I felt after moving to Austin. Even when my parents asked me it made me think about going back in which resulted in missing my friends and family. But then few weeks later I started to go to school in which I made new friends.

instead all I wanted to do was go home. I had no family there, I was stressed to the max,

I don’t remember much, I just remember not wanting to leave. The place I would be spending the rest of my life I had only visited a few times. I, only being two at the time, was absolutely terrified of moving. Moving. It seemed like the worst possible thing that could’ve happened then. At first, when we left, it felt the same as the last time I had gone there. Then the realization that I would be gone forever kicked in, and the fact that this time, my dad wasn’t coming with us. Just my mom and I.

My father wanted a better life for us, he thought life is making choices, and he wanted his Mom & children near him so he can be a father to us . In 1999 ' when my father calleds my Grandma and said, " we have to be in Kenya in order for the process to be porcessed. I still can remember how terrified I was leaving my homeland I had to leave my mom , freind , and my relative in Somalia.The process takes sometimes before you get approved. We moved to a place where everything was different culturly , religiously, and they spoke a language that I could't understand I was surrounded by a new environment and everything seems so hard . But then i adjust to that alien environment. I made friends , i learned the laugues "Sawahili" I was in a different land and I learn a different culture , there are a lot of surprises and somethimes difficult things that impresses when you are in a country that you have never been

When I was four years old my mom told me that we were going to move to America. Since I was still a little I was so very excited. I lived in Ethiopia where we had little compared to America. As a little kid, I was always told stories of America. We though the country was perfect in all ways. Having been living in a place with many homeless, sick, and orphaned people America seemed like paradise to me. It seemed to me that moving will be the best thing for my family to do. When we moved I was not disappointed. Though things were not exactly how I thought.