Reflection About Moving To America

Seven years ago, I moved to United States. Like anyone who had welcomed changes in their life, I had a hard time dealing with my new situation. It’s very difficult to fit in. In my homeland, life is harsh with the great gap of poor and rich, but my family got everything. Our lives were plentiful. We were not prepared to face the changes and challenges in the United States. My mother didn’t know how to get a job or how my two older sisters would get into college. It was not the same life we had in the Philippines. We left our homeland while my two older sisters were college students. My parents didn’t know how to help them to pursue their future here so my parents decided to let my sisters return home to finish their education. As they graduated with degrees and awards, the truth is, I sincerely respect and admire my sisters dearly, but I don’t want to end up like my sisters who finished college with so numerous awards and can’t get the job she wants because her degree is from another country.

This situation has greatly impacted my point of view on education. It has also become my motivation. I always try my best to get good grades and to balance my work and

school. I realize that people cannot get what they want or need because they have money, but because they have perseverance. I have a chance to go to college in the United States. So, I always pressure myself to be successful. If I have lower grades, I try to talk to my teachers about how to be better next time. I focus on my goals. However, in the last two years, there are so many obligations that I had to focus such as working full time while in school full time. Some of the years had been rough due to physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Some of the quarters in school were greatly affected and led to failures because there are times I focused too much earning money to help my family to survive and to have an education. Even though I failed so many times, I repeated some courses to be able to understand, practice and comprehend those classes that I failed. I believed that before success, I had to experience the pain and struggles of failures.

When I graduate this year, I am hoping for a bright future.

I will be the one who will help care for my family and pay back the time and sacrifices my family gave to me, especially my mother, who works two full time jobs to assist our needs. I want to be the role model for my family. In the future, I want to take care of people. Even if I am terribly bad at math, I am quite fascinated in Science especially Biology. Like doctors, nurses or dentists, I want to take care of people the way I want to take care of my family. I appreciate my parents and my sisters because they taught me to understand the value of family, education and life. I want to change the point of view of people who are new to this country. I want them to realize that financial problems and culture shock are not barriers and not to give

up.