While I was growing up, I had become acclimated to moving around. I constantly moved in and out of houses, sometimes to a new city while other times to a completely different country. When I was a year old, I had departed from Miami en route to Barranquilla, Colombia where I spent four years with my grandfather. My grandfather would always reassure me with an Arabic proverb “Continuing in the same state is impossible” meaning that all change is always beneficial in spite of its guise. At the time, I was too young and naïve to understand his perspective. But now, after he has passed away, I have begun to truly grasp the meaning behind the words he spoke to me.
By the time my fifth birthday came around, I was on yet another lonely plane soaring through the hazy sky passing through cloud after cloud, waiting apprehensively to see my mother after spending two years apart. I quickly grew fond of my alleged “new home” in Puerto Rico, but like clockwork, in a year I reverted back to my former nomadic lifestyle. This time, I returned to South Florida and embarked on a city hopping debacle; u...
Back then 3 years ago, I totally had no thoughts about moving to a new country and how it would shape me as a new person in the future. I was a casual Vietnamese boy several years ago with no stamina or passion about what I was doing. All my life only seems to be lurking around learning and playing plainly with almost
Imagine having to leave your hometown, where you have lived all of your life, in search of another job. You do not want to move, but at the same time you want to provide food and a decent lifestyle for you and your family. News arrives that an abundance of jobs are available in another part of the country. Hoping for the best, you pack your bags and head for employment. Your kids are saddened about the situation, but they understand the need for relocation. During the travel to the new area, you and your family begin to get excited about living in a different place, even though everyone regrets leaving friends and family behind.
Despite the packing boxes and the moving truck parked on her street, Riley Matthews could not accept the fact that she was moving to Austin, Texas. She had only ever known New York City as home. Her two best friends, Maya Hart and Farkle Minkus, lived and conquered the world with her since the first grade. The trio was inseparable. What would she do without them? Her mom promised her that she would make new friends in Texas, but Riley couldn’t trust that. She would be the weird new girl from a state up north. Moving to Texas would be the end of
“Mom, when I grow up, I’m moving to New York City!” I remember telling my mother at the tender age of twelve. That dream of living in the Big Apple stayed on the back of my mind until it finally became a reality. At was twenty years old, I was ready to come into my own, so I made one of the most significant decisions of my life; a decision that is most responsible for the evolvement of a young boy having to quickly become a man. I moved to New York City. Soon, I would learn that along with all the excitement and responsibilities associated with this new chapter of my life also came a ton of fear and many lonely nights. Fending for myself would be the only way to survive. After all, this was an enormous unfamiliar city
After spending 11 years in Egypt, I moved to the United States, an environment that was completely different from the one I came from. However, Life goes on. My pare...
... and I started to realize some of the good effects that moving has had. I now understand that this experience has changed me in positive ways as well. Soon I would have friends in different places in the world that I can visit. I would have many places where I could go and feel like home. Most importantly, I would learn that one can adapt to every town and its people and that friends can be made everywhere. Every place has its conveniences and its problems. Every town has its generous and heartless citizens.
Traveling to another country can be a very exciting experience. Taking a big step to move forward from where you are, to where you want to be. Why it is that individuals leave their country, their home to go elsewhere with no true evidence of a better life? When they do move, do these individuals bring something from home to remind themselves of where they came? And when they have reached their destination and did all they were told, do they end up with the happy life they had imagined they would live? In Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners, Blissful Ignorance is all too common amongst new comers. Selvon tells many stories through the voice and Conscious mind of a man named Moses. Along the way, each character learns
Life is full of experiences and exploration. In life everyone have something that has changed the way they recognize things. Most things change a person’s perception because of the experience they had in the past. I never imagined that my life would ever change. Being born in a different country and end up in a different place could be very hard and frustrating.
Just like my mother had said, starting over was not an easy task, the first few months were not easy, I felt extreme homesickness, I was experiencing for the first time being almost fully independent, and I had to learn how to solve problems on my own, for example commuting in a unfamiliar city. However, there was not a second when I regretted this experience, on the contrary, this opened my appetite to more traveling, due to the fact that I meet so much new people, saw that there was more to life, than what I was used to seeing every day, and most importantly I learned about myself. I firmly believe that in order to fully know yourself, you need to experience different cultures. For example, In Washington due to the cold weather, I had no other option but to stay in doors, as a result, I discovered my passion for painting, something I otherwise would had not learned about myself if I stayed in Mexico. Not only this but making art helped me during the hardest periods of my life; it helped me understand that I could transform whatever bad thing was happening, in to something beautiful.
For two years, I pranced ignorantly through out my life. Views of the pentagon, flooded the panoramic windows of my apartment. Chandeliered lobbies, tennis courts, a sauna, multiple pools, a gym, a balcony, roof top access, twenty-four-hour security and many other amenities blinded me. It was the place to be. Every night there were parties, people, liquor, music, and food. Two hundred miles away from home, I lived what I thought was, the ultimate life of independence. Completely naïve to the reality of the world, I impractically coasted up the hills in my life. Life was sweet, but have you ever heard the saying life is a box of chocolates? I soon learned, like a box of chocolates, no matter how sweet life is you never know what you’re going
It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father finished settling things. I remember most of my earlier childhood by watching some old videos of me playing by the pool and dancing in the living room. It seemed like life could not get any better. However, I was excited and impatient to experience a new lifestyle. I realized that I could start a whole new life, make new friends and learn a new language. Belgium was not as sunny as South Florida but it has much better food and family oriented activities. Geographic mobility can have many positive effects on younger children, such as learning new languages, being more outgoing, and more family oriented; therefore, parents should not be afraid to move around and experience new cultures.
Everyone faces challenges in their life. Even people that seem like everything come so easily to them. The first sixteen years of my life were spent in the most beautiful and friendliest country, Philippines. Throughout this time, I was the friendly and outgoing person. However, everything has changed when I first moved to United States in May 2013. It was a major “bump in the road” for me.
It’s September of 2009, the semi-truck is sitting outside with all of our belongings in it, like an airplane waiting to take us away. Today is gloomy and raining as usual, but I know I’m going to miss it. The sun has started going down; we all get into the vehicles we’re designated. Me, my Dad, and Jade our Boxer into the truck, Mom Jaycee and the other animals into the car, and my Aunt Tina and Grandma into their suburban. It’s bitter sweet, I am so excited to go to a new city, new state, new everything, but I’m leaving behind everyone I grew up with. My closest friends who thought I was funny, not weird. Who I consider my brother, Daniel, and my mom’s side of the family all left behind. We begin driving, the truck brakes releasing
These times only took up a portion of my childhood, from a few weeks after I was born and taken on a plane to the Dominican Republic to grow up among my familiars, to around five
Even before arriving to the United States, the fear I felt was not having the familiarity of home (St. Lucia). Moving to the U.S meant that I had to start my life all over again. This time it would be without the unwavering support of my family and friends. Whether I succeeded or failed in school was entirely up to me. It wa...