Going through the bustling crowd, people spoke the strange languages with unfamiliar body languages, and I knew I'm really on a foreign land. Before that, the only way I got to know the United States was from the films and the media, and I used to like other people to imagine one day could be able to come to America, enjoy the American life, and pursue the American Dream. Now, all of my previous imagination was confirmed at that moment. I’m an international student from China, and I’m taking a risk to challenge myself to live in America, and there is no relative and friend I know in here, and it means I have to start a new life by myself. However, I didn't realize there were a lot of difficulty are waiting for me in the future. People in this …show more content…
world may need resilience to fight through the problems and stress that surround them. Resilience is able to recover from and traumatic incident, and it is also a way to heal from an incident that has scared you. In Eric Greitens’ book, Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life. Greitens provides his real-life experiences to write the letters to encourage and give all of his advice to his comrade. After reading his book, I realized that being resilience would make me have more patience, and it minimizes the hardship and suffering even integrate into my life, and also, it educates me not to escape from and even confront the pain. First of all, being resilience may not make me immediately be successful, but it’s the time to test endurance and insistence.
At the beginning of American life, everything was special and fancy, and it seemed I would also have this life. However, when the time to find a new apartment, and I even thought I should not deserved this life. I tried many times to contact with residence companies and owners by cellphones, and most of times the reasons of the failure were I could not understand what other sides said to me, and my only reply was “thank you”. There was the first time I felt isolated and helpless. Before that, my friends asked me why I didn’t stay in host family, and what I thought was having an independent life; but after those failures, I thought the idea might be unrealistic. Whereas, I didn’t want to give up, so I stayed searching on the Internet, asking other students for the availability rooms. When I got a phone call from an owner for making an appointment to see the house, and I knew there was nothing wrong with perseverance. I prepared a lot before the meeting, and I did my best to understand the details of renting the room. After I saw the rent contract that he gave to me, I couldn’t even believe that my pursuit became true. The time of waiting frustrated me, but I should be grateful because I insisted on it. All in all, I think I inspired the potential of endurance inside of
me.
Cave, Damien. "What Does It Mean to Be American?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 2014. Web. 04 Sept. 2016.
“You are in America, speak English.” As a young child hearing these words, it did not only confuse me but it also made me question my belonging in a foreign country. As a child I struggled with my self-image; Not being Hispanic enough because of my physical appearance and not being welcomed enough in the community I have tried so hard to integrate myself with. Being an immigrant with immigrant parents forces you to view life differently. It drives you to work harder or to change the status quo for the preconceived notion someone else created on a mass of people. Coming to America filled me with anxiety, excitement, and even an unexpected wave of fear.
What does it mean to be an American? To me, what it means to be American is to Pledge Allegiance to your country, to proudly boast that you live in a country that has a justification for existence, to be given opportunity. Although there are many definitions of what it means to be an American, does being an American really just mean being successful in society? The point of this essay is to describe the different meanings and my feelings of what it is to be “American”.
I walked around unsteadily all day like a lost baby, far away from its pack. Surrounded by unfamiliar territory and uncomfortable weather, I tried to search for any signs of similarities with my previous country. I roamed around from place to place and moved along with the day, wanting to just get away and go back home. This was my first day in the United States of America.
There are many challenges that one must face as we go through life. I have faced a few myself, however, none proved more challenging than moving from my country; Jamaica, to the United States and subsequently moving to the state of Wisconsin. Deciding to leave behind family and friends is the hardest decision to make, however, there are a few things that I was not prepared for that made the transition more challenging than expected. Moving away from all that is familiar culturally, socially and economically can be even more of a daunting task than imagined. There are things that are taught to us by our parents and others that are more dictated by our environment than anything else, so when I immigrated to the United States I had three major challenges to overcome.
Among every other country in the world, the United States of America is where people feel the most comfortable place to come and live a better life. Immigrants are people who leave their counties to reside in other counties that are rich and safe to better themselves. Every year people immigrate to the USA for many reasons. Many people are having difficulty living in their native country such as over population, jobless which make the economy so hard. People from outside of the United States think there is peace, love, equality, free education, jobs, good food to stay healthy, but most importantly freedom of speech to express yourself in America. Today, I will only focus on some reasons why people in my country immigrates to America. This is
When my family and I got in the plane that would take us to the U.S., I was very excited. It was as if I had butterflies in my stomach. I was also nervous because I had heard of people that were turned away when they got to America because the government was not letting as many immigrants into the U.S as they had in the past. Therefore, my whole family was a little anxious. Two things could happen when we arrived at the Washington, D.C., airport. We could either come to the United States to chase after “the American dream”, or we could be turned away which meant that we would have to return to our country of origin.
What makes a person an American? It 's an interesting question, with an immeasurable number of possible answers. Every American can likely think up some one word answer to this question and a large percentage of these answers would likely be freedom, even though freedom isn 't as uncommon as it has been in the past and freedom is no longer the groundbreaking, revolutionary idea that sets America apart from the rest of the world. It is entirely possible that a large majority of the world 's population that aren 't American can also answer this question with little trouble, although, these answers are likely worlds apart from the answers that the average American would give. With a question such as this, perspective is everything, that special something that makes an American an American is dependent on the political views and affiliation of those answering the question. It is safe to assume that many Americans have a lofty opinion of themselves and of their country, but the same attitude regarding the greatness of America and the
What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to be a part of a country? I believe that being a citizen is much more than just living in the same country for a set number of years. There are several ways that the word "citizen" can be defined. For example, individuals may say that when you do good deeds and make your country a better place you are considered a citizen. When you work hard to donate to your country you are showing that you believe in While there are other individuals believe that being a good citizen means portraying kindness, generosity, a helping hand; what some people may refer to as a servants heart. Of course, different countries will have different interpretations of what citizen is and
What does it mean to be a citizen of the U.S.A, well it means much more than just that fact that you are a citizen, but it in itself is an exceptional obligation to me. To be an American means many things to me. To be an American means that you are a part of one of the greatest countries in the whole world. To be an American means that you have freedom, to do almost anything as much what you want and to say what you want as long as it is constitutional. It means that you have equality because everyone is given an equal chance here. It means that you have the right to go out and chase your dreams and strive for your goals. To be an American also means that you are a citizen in one of the most diverse countries in the world and that you must
To foreigners who longed for a happy life, Americans made it almost seem easy. The story 'America and I' written by Anzia Yezierska, gives the audience a greater look at what it must be like to start a new life in the great America. " As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding. "
Do you have a Facebook account? Do you use Instagram? If you do, then how many followers do you have? Those questions and conversations happen everywhere. The social apps from our phones are becoming more and more irreplaceable not only among teenagers but also adults.
Kiera Sandlin “ The America I Believe In” Ronald Reagan once said,” America is too great for small dreams.” Because of our veterans, it is possible for dreams to come true. It is because of the veterans that we have the power to live life how we want it. Women can vote and we can build our dream houses because we are eligible to get good paying jobs to support our families and live life happily. I believe that us Americans, can do anything.
Culture can simply be defined as ‘way of life’ of a group of people. It is about the way groups do things. There can be several ways of thinking about and studying culture. Gail McDonald studied the culture of America through four concepts that include “big, rich, new and free”. (McDonald)For this essay, I would like to define and analyze the American culture in terms of ‘freedom’. I selected this dimension because it has been one of the most distinct dimensions of American culture and it has contributed a lot in making what America is today. It will be interesting to analyze how this cultural dimension has contributed shaping the culture of the United States through the course of time.
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...