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Personal Narrative: Integrating Into American Society

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Major changes in many kids live breeds from their family’s transition from one place to another. Most times they move a couple blocks or to another city or another state. The transition is arduous, but as hard as it is, most American kids don’t cross the Atlantic ocean to reside on a whole new continent. That is my story. I know stories like these often pour out the ears of many after auditory intake. It is accounted as something that is not a “real problem” and I can understand why. The truth is I have “real” stories better than the one I’ll address shortly. I could tell the story of my dad’s torture during the civil war in Liberia. I could elaborate by mentioning that he was tortured for hiding my mother from soldiers who were out seeking …show more content…

Leaving the only home I ever knew was the hardest experience of my short framed life. The process was emotionally strenuous and physically painful. My heart ached for familiarity it still does sometimes. Integrating into American society was difficult. Everything was different, from the smallest things like the way kids talked to complex issues like the structure of the entire education system. New and different things surrounded me everywhere: passing time at school, the washing machine at home and even the dishwasher. I attended a small charter school in Westland, Michigan. Between these walls, I broke and regained my pieces. My cultural difference set me apart from most of the kids - my accent, the way I dressed and the way I behaved. Social interaction with my peers were difficult because they didn’t know how to connect with me. When they did try to communicate, the conversation always provoked me. For instance, during the first week of school my table partner introduced herself and so did I. She asked where I was from and when I answered she was stunned. She later informed the rest of the class and for the rest of the day I was bombarded with outrageous questions like: Do you guys live in trees? How did you go to school? I felt so diminish as my peers indirectly stated their thought about people like

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