Moving to America Essay Example
Would you believe me if I said that your whole life could turn upside down in one day with one decision? Most people may not accept this truth and I was once disbelieving of it, too. However, all that changed when my mother woke me up one dreadful morning, and said with a voice full of sadness, “Start packing your bag. We will be moving to America in one month.” In that moment, my mind struggled to grasp the reality and for a long time I continued fighting that battle.
The word ‘hard’ pales in comparison to the pain I felt when I was needed to desert my friends and family in India in order to shift to the United States of America. To this day, I can recall the river of tears that flowed from my eyes, every day, as I struggled to retain my identity in a new land with a new life. For months after months, my life seemed out-of-place, but even my darkest nights passed with the arrival of a bright morning. At last, I was victorious as I entered middle school, and my loneliness ceased. Despite my hardships, I found people who I made meaningful connections with. They are the ones who taught me how to smile and showed me the beauty of optimism. It would be a lie to claim that every single occurrence related to my transition, resulted in a positive outcome, but most of them made me a much stronger person with a better future. All these sudden drastic transitions left me breathless, but from them, I understood the necessity of embracing change, a lesson I will always be grateful for.
For as far as my memories go, I lived a monotonous life in a cosmopolitan city of India, but one morning taught me the true meaning of change in the hardest way possible. On January 18th, 2013, I could never have inferred that a hurricane would have stormed my life on such a bright, sunny day. During the morning of that inauspicious day, my mother woke me up particularly early in the morning to break some extremely sad news to me. She said that my father had informed us that we had to leave India and transfer to the United States in order to live with him.
Her voice was so heavy with sadness that it was a shock that I didn't realize how troubled she was by this news, so I kept making this move problematic for her. It would have been a lot easier for my mother had I obeyed every word she said. However, in that moment, all I could wonder was how I could start my life anew. Immediately, I started screaming about how inconsiderate everyone was for expecting me to abandon my whole life in my birth country. Moreover, I started begging my mother to let me stay with my grandparents. However, against her own wishes, my mother ignored my desperate pleas. There are no rivers that are deep enough to hold the tears I shed that day without sparing even one though about the bright future that could have laid ahead of me by this move. Everybody said that change was inevitable, but in the dark moment, I could only imagine the day I had to say goodbye to my friends and family.
The day of my departure came much earlier than expected as the time I had to spend with my close ones passed too fleetingly. As I stood in the airport, giving one last hug to my best friend, I heard the announcement to board my flight. It’s a true miracle that I composed myself during that moment, even though my heart broke with pain. When my flight took off towards the dark sky to an unknown place, I was utterly unable to forget the images of my grandparents waving goodbye and my friends hugging me for the last time ever.
My gloom followed me throughout the whole journey to the United States of America, even when I stepped on American soil for the first time. However, all that would change as I left the airport and saw the one person my eyes had ached to see for three years: my father. As soon as I saw his beaming smile and eagerly waiting arms, I was reminded of my love for him. I understood that despite all the challenges I would face, I would never be alone as long as I had my dad by my side. After picking up my luggage, my dad took me to my new, bare apartment that differed a lot from my home in my birth country. With the smell of home gone, I clutched my dad’s hand firmly to avoid the heartache that threatened to break me. It was very hard to console myself, but I wasn’t allotted enough time to mourn all that I lost.
After a few weeks, I returned to school, but this time it was a new place with new people in a new land. Classes sounded so peculiar and words so gibberish that, soon, math was the sole class that I could comprehend. After excelling at academics for so long in India, it felt shaming to be just average. Nevertheless, my basket of problems lightened because over time I created better studying habits and started achieving higher grades. There are no words joyful enough to describe the happiness I felt when my English teacher showcased my essay to the class.
Despite my severe loneliness, I had finally started to assemble my life from the pieces it shattered into. As I transferred to middle school, my situation started to improve much more with newly-found friends and more stability. As my life ceased to move like a rollercoaster, I evaluated the past three rocky years. It took me only a small amount of time to realize how foolish I was in trying to resist such a blessed future. The conclusion that I derived after my evaluation helped me understand that changes will always be a part of my life, but it’s my point of view toward them that will end up deciding my fate.
My rough beginning in America caused me extreme heartache, but it also gave me the wonderful present of courage and strength. These two virtues that I was gifted allowed me to walk with pride as I entered high school for the first time. Not only drastic changes, but even small transitions, such as waving goodbye, are much easier as I learned to accept the departure of old acquaintances and the arrival of new friends. Even though it’s still impossible for me to appreciate every change that comes along in life, I always try to conform to a new situation to the best of my ability. This important lesson of adjusting and welcoming a change is the main lesson that I learned from my experience of moving to the United States of America, and it has benefited me in every stage of my life.
Once, I may have naively believed that everything in life could stay stable for a very long duration; however, my transition to America changed my point of view. To this day it amazes me how I learned that the meaning of life is changed, through just that one experience. People say that every experience brings along a new teaching and vital lesson and there’s no doubt in my mind that this transition did the same. By adjusting to a completely different school in an unknown country, I learned to be a more versatile person and embrace every challenging situation that I may face in life. This lesson can prove to be extremely beneficial for many, especially those who are afraid to leave their comfort zone and try something new. It may be extremely difficult to welcome changes and turmoil with open arms, but attempting to conform to a new situation can make one’s experience much easier and happier.
