Essay On Being A Homeless Immigrant

866 Words2 Pages

Imagine being a kid at the age of 10 who migrates from a whole different country to the United States. A kid full of hopes and expectations to have great opportunities and to get a better education. My name is Estefany, I migrated to the United States about 7 years ago at the age of 10. As I got here, I was able to meet my parents for the first time after years of not having their presence, love and affection growing up. I still remember everything as if it was yesterday, things were very difficult for me as I started school. Learning to speak English was one of the biggest struggles I encountered throughout my time here, in communicating with other children and my teachers. Having to experience bullying for not speaking correctly and being …show more content…

What was the reason for keeping it to yourself for so long? Being in this particular situation led me to being scared, I was afraid no one would believe me, afraid that something horrible would happen to me for getting caught asking for help, afraid that my younger siblings would end up getting taken away, not having anywhere to go. This situation continued for about 4 years until I finally decided to leave the abusive environment. My homeless journey started as a 15 year old moving from house to house from living at an uncle’s house for a couple of days to being sent to the state of Connecticut to live with another family member because Child Protective Services decided that was the best option for me. Everything turned out to be a disaster after this decision was made, it resulted in getting kicked out of my own family’s home. I ended up looking for a place to rent and to stay at, I struggled a lot since I was a minor at only 15 years old. I was afraid of many things but I took the chance to the only opportunity I had, I ended up getting a lot of hours at a job I had at a Guatemalan restaurant in which I worked as a …show more content…

I was able to do all of this by myself, I worked hard, sometimes I didn't have any money left for food because I spent most of it on rent and in some of my necessities I had such as clothing, hygienic stuff, I also bought an inflatable bed since I did not have a bed to sleep on. This continued for a couple of weeks until Child Protective Services from the State of Connecticut found out about what was going on, fortunately they were able to help me out and my family who kicked me out of their house while being a minor got in serious trouble specially because it was done without a reason to, CPS made the decision to return me back to New York which was something that I did not want to happen because I had to live back with my abusive mother. As I returned to New York, I was referred to a place called Walkabout, a runaway and homeless youth shelter. A place in which I am now glad to be at, in which they have helped me

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