The move to the United States

Coming to the United States from another country is not an easy thing to do, people would like to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars but they still can’t come from another country to the USA like mine Afghanistan. People from my country spend all they have and months on their way to go to another country like Turkey which doesn’t have great opportunities for emigrants like the USA. But because my dad was working in a military base in (Bagram) Afghanistan for more than 10 years, that’s how we got the privilege of coming to the USA easily. 

In Afghanistan, we were living in a big family house, where my grandparents, uncles, and aunts were living all together. We had many pomegranate trees at the house and there was always one time a year when we took them off the tree and divided them equally with each other. I was the only one who loved to have chickens at home so I always had one or two chickens at the house as a pet.

 School time was shorter than 4 hours so I used to play soccer, fly kites, and even play cricket after school. In Afghanistan elementary school is for grades 1st to 3rd, middle school is for grades 4th to 6th, and high school is for grades 7th to 12th. I was in 5th grade so middle school. All of these 3 school levels elementary, middle, and high school happen at the same school but in different shifts. Elementary school was on the morning shift, middle school was starting at 12:00 pm, and high school was starting at 1:00 pm. I cannot forget buying spicy corn when we got off from school. 

Before coming to the United States everyone in our big family and our relatives were sad. Our family was crying because we were moving far apart from the people who we had lived with for a long time. And it was also hard for us because we always lived in a big family but getting separated from them was not easy for any of us. On the morning of the flight day,  all my relatives were at the house to see us for the last time. My family was hugging and crying with each other, especially missing my grandma was not easy for any of us.

 But I could say I was also happy because I was going to get to fly in my life for the first time. We drove to the airport one hour away from our house. I gave all the money that I had to my uncle because I thought once we got inside we could not buy anything but when we got inside I saw there were vendors where you could buy drinks, gums, and other things but I didn’t have money anymore. Our first flight was from Kabul Afghanistan to Dubai, then Dubai to Germany. When we arrived in Germany I could remember how much walking we did that was needed and taking pictures as well. Our next flight was from Germany to Miami, last but not least we got our last flight from Miami to Seattle. It took us two days to get from Afghanistan to Washington state, which was around 26 hours!

We arrived in the United States of America on February 1, 2018. It was 2 am and someone who my dad knew came and picked us up. We went to his house and on the way to his house, I remember seeing the highway and the trees next to it. It was amazing for me to see nice roads and beautiful trees at that time of the night. Once we arrived at his house and ate the food it was around 4 am so we went to sleep. We woke up early the next morning because our agency person was there to help us get a house and buy food from the store. I was surprised to see the biggest store “Winco Foods” for the first time compared to small stores in Afghanistan where you can’t find everything you need in one store. 

In my story, I chose my dad as the symbol of guidance and the one who allowed us to come to the USA. It was he who worked in a military base for more than 10 years and then gave us the opportunity to get a good education and live in a peaceful environment. 

The message of the story is all the hard work is worth it to come to a new country and learn a new language and get a good education.