I grew up in poverty with a small family, which consisted of my mother, sister, two step brothers, and my father who has a no contact order with my sister and me. Many of my peers often complain about how much they hate school and would rather be at home. But for me school was my escape from another world. A world I have no choice but to withstand. A world where shootings are common, where drugs are everywhere, where police patrol every Tuesday and Thursday; the darker side of Seattle. With both my parents being immigrants coming from war-torn countries we had no choice where to live, to eat, and to learn. As a family, we had no help from anyone so we had to keep our head up and persevere.
In the 90’s, my parents immigrated to the United States. My father was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He escaped from a time of high level of recruitment for the nation's army. He eluded the government for years and eventually came to North Dakota as a student. My mother is from the Former Yugoslavia; more specifically she was born in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina and grew up in what is now Slovenia. My mother came to America to escape the failing monarchy in Yugoslavia, which was a result of many wars
…show more content…
School was a place where I could leave the dysfunctional atmosphere I live in and nothing took my mind off of my hardships like sports, music, and community service. To avoid the life I lived when school was over, I would learn new instruments and play different sports. I even began to participate in restoring Seattle parks every Saturday with a group called Earth Corps through a non-profit organization called Global Visionaries. I learned leadership skills and met people that changed my life for the better. I realized that there were many things I could do that would allow me to learn and give back to the community and at the same time allow me to escape from my
Undocumented students are becoming a growing outrage in the United States. It has been a constant battle amongst the students, the schools, and the Government. According to collegeboard.com, statistics shows that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year (collegeboard.com).After graduating high school they face legal and financial barriers to higher education. This paper will address the importance of this growing outrage and discuss the following that corresponds to it.
There are many reasons why my family decided to leave their homes in Italy and make the move to America. There were many political and religious issues, along with towns and homes being overcrowded. My family were farmers looking for a change and the unification was rural along with the land management was poor. As my family did not have a lot of cash, we could only afford to buy tickets in the cargo area of the ship. The food was horrible as we were sailing to the new land. We ate a lot of potatoes, soup, and left overs. It was food to comfort us but not what I really wanted to eat.
Put simply, my parents are Bosnian refugees who immigrated into the United States in the late 90’s. Bosnia is a small region of what was Yugoslavia, which was located in the Balkans. Being raised Bosnian-American has instilled a distinct set of characteristics within my soul that cannot be summarized in any standardized way. No SAT score, ACT score, or GPA could measure the tenacity I have, nor the reverence I have inherited. A healthy mix of personal experiences and heritage is what makes me uniquely me, and I would not have it any other way.
The changing environments throughout the ages have caused the movement of thousands of families out of their homelands. Whether forced to make such decisions or doing so by their own desires, all immigrants have had to survive the physical and psychological challenges encountered along the way. To speak about the experiences of all these different people using the same ideas and examples would be quite inaccurate. They all, however, had to live through similar situations and deal with similar problems. Many of them succeeded and found the better future they were looking for. Many others found only hardship and experienced the destruction of their hopes and dreams. All of them were transformed.
School was a priority to my parents, much more for my father. Going to school for him meant that we had a chance at becoming professionals and earning careers that would earn twice or even five times as more of what he makes. School for me wasn’t the greatest for a while only because the teachers and students seemed unmotivated to teach and learn. Everyday was new problems either at school or home making life for a preteen difficult.It seemed as if life did not want to give me a chance to have fun. Until the day came where a reality check hit me. In a matter of seconds i had to grow up and discover that if i don’t make a change then life will continue to be meaningless. My first choice was to start with school. Classes suddenly became easier
The United States has been notorious for welcoming peoples from all over the world onto its lands in order to facilitate the growth of a diverse nation and generations of families have traveled to America in search of creating lives more fulfilling than those they had escaped. During the years of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States allowed the highest rates of immigration in it's history with groups from a number of different countries sought an escape from the economical, political, and religious hardships their own nations bequeathed. This massive influx of such a myriad of ethnicities irreversibly changed the evolution of the newly formed United States and challenged existing ideas and
I grew up in a multi-racial household where neither of my parents graduated high school. School was never discussed nor was I encouraged to attend. It was the norm to begin working as soon as you turned sixteen. Success was based on being able to maintain a job in order to contribute financially to the family. I had to seek guidance from teachers, coaches and friends since there was no academic support at home. I realized early on that school was going to be my way out. An education was going to allow me to become financially independent and allow me to experience the world that I did not know much about.
Standing in the middle of the airport’s terminal gate, waiting to hear the voice of the anonymous lady in the microphone to announce about the time the gate opens to enter the airplane. Although we have traveled before, this time seems different. As a family, we waited there for forty-five minutes, and I spent each minute of them saying my goodbyes to the place where I spent all my teenage years there. A place that I grew up in, made life friendships, and finished my high school degree in its schools. During that time, I sat beside my mom and looked at my twin brothers playing with their toys in front of me. How naive and innocent they looked made me feel relief for a while because at least they will not have to deal with our immigration. Then, I turned to my mom to talk to her, but I saw tears on her face. I did not know what to do, the whole day I showed them that I am strong and can handle the situation however my mother’s tears break me. Also, I could not tell my father about it because he too seems worried and nervous that he spent most of the time checking every single paper we need before traveling. Even though I tried to comfort my mom by telling her that
The rapid beating of my heart that aches to break from the confines of my chest- the very housing that traps it. The cold sweat that fills my skin leaving a chill that exacerbates my rapid thoughts. This is the story of my life: a life in which anxiety possessed a domineering feat upon my will. As a child my notoriously predisposition to worrying has always been prominent. As I have progressed through my life I have become more aware of this controlling element to my life and have consequently fought to oppress it. Nonetheless anxiety has been not my biggest weakness but my most peculiar strength. Anxiety has provided me with the path required to open my doors to discovery and change as I transform from a shy individual to a determined, unrelenting leader.
In 1998, I born in Eagle Pass, Texas. By the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, I was the first U.S citizen in the family; the son of two illegal immigrants. My mother moved back to Mexico right after I born and a few years later my father passed away. Opportunities were limited for my mother
Over the long summers without school was always the worst. No school, no constant, and no safety. The only constants I ever had in my life was school and the beatings. I believe that is why I have always loved school so much. The familiar surroundings in the hallways filled with people you know and trust to not hurt you. The faint smell of antiseptic and cafeteria food. The teachers in the hallway awaiting your arrival. Same desk, same classmates, just everything the same. A lot of my teachers never knew this, but in a lot of their classes that was my home. Where I was my safest. My teachers were the only adults that ever made me feel safe. And for that, I have vowed to become a teacher and strive to change the lives of each student that walks through my classroom door. It is also the reason I want to become a motivational speaker and book
I have made a list of the things Aidan and I are going to do before we leave for college. We still have to think about if we want to be together or if we should breakup. We both still love each other but I want to breakup because we will be a thousand miles away. The first stop we went to was the High School I picked this stop because it was where we first met. Then something happened that ruined the first thing on the list the school was locked so we couldn’t get in I was really hoping to get in because I wanted to relive every moment just the way it happened. The next stop on the list was the pizza place I chose this spot because it was where Aidan and I first had our real conversation the pizza place is a restaurant for everyone but it usually
The anticipation had been building for a while as the murmurs and whispers of leaving my hometown finally came to be. As a curious eight year old I wondered why my dad was taking me everywhere to get all these important things done. Finally my great-grandmother sat me down and told me I had to be strong go with my father and everything will be all right. I watched my mother cry as we said our goodbyes. I left with my dad and my sisters and headed off to America. A few ours, and culture shock later I would land in New York City. The day sits with me January 14, 1998. It was freezing and I had never seen snow. I wasn't phased by snow and I wasn't deterred by my dad leaving me and my sisters with a aunt I had never met. Growing up in Brooklyn was different
When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.
School, to me and among many peers of my age, is not a distant term. I have spent one-third of my life time sitting in classrooms, every week since I was seven years old. After spending this much time in school, many things and experiences that happened there have left their mark in my memory. Some are small incidences while some have had a great impact on me. However, regardless the degree of significance, things that happened all contributed to shape the person that I am now.