My Struggles In The United States

After being dropped off from dance late at night, I was expecting to walk into a silent house where everyone was asleep. Instead, I walked into my living room to find the rest of my family sitting on the couch with the television off, which was strange for my family. It was clear they were waiting for me to get home, so I sat down too. My mom and dad exchanged a look and a sigh then turned back towards my brother and me. They babbled absently for a few minutes, then, my mom quickly spit out the words, as if ripping off a Band-Aid, "We are moving back to Arizona." There was a brief moment of stunned silence before I burst into tears. I could not imagine why my parents would decide to separate me from my best friends six months before we were supposed to

Started off with me having to move back to Indiana. First, my mom was nowhere to be found, so I wasn’t able to say good bye and that I loved her. I really wanted to be able to hug her one last time. She did the same thing when I was a kid. It made me feel unwanted all over again, so I got on the bus with nothing but 3 bags and no money.

One day about two weeks before summer vacation at the time I was in fifth grade. My mom comes to me younger sister in our bedroom with her looks at us with her bright hazel eyes. She told us something “We are moving girls we got to start packing we are going to be living with your Uncle and aunt for a while”. That wisent the first time she’s said this to us new home new school but for some reason this one scared me a little more. A few days later we began to pack and within a week’s time we were done.

My mom and her boyfriend at the time, would continue to argue nearly every day. It got to the point, to where I tried running away from the apartment multiple times, of course, I never succeeded. At the age of 10 I experienced fighting between my dad and step-mom. In the beginning I thought it was only a 1-time thing. But as it continued, I realized it wasn’t. Me, having to deal with fighting before, stepped- in to break up the fight to protect my siblings. The fights were always verbal, but I didn’t want my siblings to witness what I have had to many times before. I would take my siblings downstairs, my little sister being 3 years younger than me, and my brother by 10 years. I hoped it would at least help them, instead of developing a corrupted

Something in my stomach was telling me I would not see him. I did not tell anyone this though just in case I was wrong. But I was right I always have a way of knowing these things. He heard a knock on the door. A feeling of relief washed over everyone except me. The person at the door was the only policeman in town and Frank the town leader. My mom could not keep it together. It is a hard sight to see when your mom is sad. The person you look up to when you are a kid is crying. That can mess a 6 year old kid up. The time that would take place next went from 0 to 100 so fast. We cremated my dad's body and moved. My mom picked texas because it had good schools. We did not have any family though and sometimes I felt as if that was a bad decision. My mother would not tell me how my dad died until I was 16. Not living without a dad can be hard. When it is at the crucial age of 6. You need a good role model. My brother became my dad if he liked it or not. Everything that happened in my life seemed like a blurr. The fact my dad was dead never really hit me. But it hit me so hard and so fast. It was like a brick wall. I started almost failing my classes, sleeping all the time, eating a lot, not exercising, moping all the time. I still suffer from it today. Back then though I wanted to die. But it is so much better. I learned that I held my mom accountable and my dad for

Everything is perfectly fine, everything is great, then one day it all comes crashing down and shattered pieces are left. My life would never be the same but I guess change is for the best and it forced me to become the person I am today. It’s rough to be the oldest child, especially when your mom is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and you have 3 younger sisters that look to you for comfort when their mom can’t be there. When the cancer is spread throughout your moms body doctors can’t just get rid of it no matter how badly you wish they could. Rounds of chemotherapy only slow it down, yet it’s still there a lurking monster waiting to reappear at any given moment. Nothing can even begin to describe the fear I felt, and still have to deal

Two years ago,I got the privilege to come to America. I felt contented thinking America has the finest educational facility and supplies in the world. However, in the beginning I wasn't able to speak English well enough so I had to face many problem including bullying. Students have bullied me. I felt I was irrelevant and imbecile to them. I had meanwhile focused on keeping my grades high. I cried a lot , but I still had to go to school to pursue my dreams of becoming a medical doctor. Nevertheless It had put me in depression and I began to lose my ambitions, I was able to have an average grade of A.

     So, next time there is a conflict with your parents, try to use the accommodating, collaborating, competing, compromising or even avoiding tactic to resolve the problem so both parties feel satisfied.

My father left the last two weeks of my first semester during my sophomore year without telling my family about it. He told me to keep it a secret, and I assumed he would eventually tell my mom. My father never did. It was frustrating how could he trust me with that type of information. I always seen him as a hard-working person willing to take challenges that face him; however, for him to run away from telling his own wife was discouraging. My emotions spiraled throughout

There were many other losses that occurred as a result of the divorce of my parents. We had to move so I also lost my home. My mom became a single income family and we suddenly were financially insecure. My dad, who was my hero, was suddenly not a part of my everyday life. My mom became withdrawn and depressed and so in a sense I lost my mom too. All these changes and losses make this one incident in my young life the most significant. The effects of the divorce of my parents followed me well into my twenties.

I can still remember vividly the day my mother passed away. My mother passed away at a critical point in my life when I was seventeen years old from a short term illness. She was sick for a week and I remember thinking this could be serious, however, my mother declined to go to the hospital because of the distance and financial hardship. I had loss my father when I was three years old, so my mother was a single mother. I have step sisters and brother, but I was not particularly close to them. Losing my mother was a defining moment in my life for it changed my life irrevocably. I was devastated, but I had to become strong, proactive and it spurred me to choose a new career path.

I began to help my mom around the house. I had to learn how to cook a proper meal when I was seven years old, do laundry among other things to give my mom some relief. One day, when I was nine years old, my grandmother shared the news of my father’s departure to the U.S and that he did so to give me a better chance. It was heavy news for me, and as an emotional child I cried with my grandma and felt sad that from now on I was not going to get the occasional visit from him. As a teenager in the process of growing into a man, you think you need a father figure, a man perspective, advice on things that life throw at you, it was clear that I didn’t have that anymore. I was fortunate to have my mother and my grandmother to teach me right and wrong; the rest was pretty much up to me.

When I was a pre-teen, my parents were not getting along for various reasons and started arguing often, which ultimately led to their divorce in 2011. I felt a great deal of responsibility because I was an older brother, honor student, and participated in many athletic events or programs at Resaca Middle School. I became

At the beginning of the divorce I was deeply hurt by my parents’ actions and was tempted to take my mom’s side in order to alleviate the stress I had built up since following my parents’ separation. I have a younger brother that looked to me for guidance and leadership in how to handle the tense relationship between my parents. Although I had influence over my brother and strong feelings of loyalty to my mother, I decided to stay out of the conflict between my parents. I did this because an older sibling should always do what is best long-term for their sibling, and I knew that if my brother and I broke off our relationship with our father it would not be best long-term for my brother. Instead of making a rash and selfish decision, I did what every big sister should do in times of conflict, protect the interests of my baby

Even today we are both teaching each other the good and the bad, and I continue to learn from it. In the eighth grade, I moved back into my grandmothers house while my mom was sent away for a third time. This was the hardest time for me. I stayed isolated in my grandmothers house for over a year where I felt like my life was just crumbling down. I was not allowed to hang out with my friends after school, and I did not even get to take the bus.