Being From a Different Country at BHS
November 9, 2021
My name is Ana Valentina Garcia Trujillo. I have two last names; Garcia and Trujillo. This seems to confuse people until I explain I was not born in the U.S. I was 9 years old when my parents told me we were moving to America. I did not know what this meant exactly, all I knew is that I did not want to. To me moving meant leaving everything behind; my family, my friends, but more importantly my roots. To my parents, however, moving meant giving me and my sister a better life with more opportunities. Now, I realize how fortunate I am to have had the opportunity to live here. Moving was very difficult for everyone but as the years passed it definitely got better. I made new friends and created a new “family”. My best friend in Mexico always tells me how I am living her dream; her “American teen dream”. She desires more than anything to go to an American high school and experience everything she has seen through movies; football games, dances, pep rallies, clubs, and riding the yellow school bus every morning. When I told her about spirit week she was so excited for me and made me realize that I was very fortunate. Not because of the fun things offered but of the opportunities I have here that I would not have had if I had stayed in Mexico. As I got older I realized how big the sacrifice my parents made was. They left their parents and the country they had known since they were little. My roots did not disappear, they expanded. I will always be proud to be Mexican but also an American citizen. Being bilingual and having lived most of my life in another country is something that has always affected my school experience. Sometimes in a negative way but most of the time in a positive way. I am able to experience the “best of both worlds” as my parents say. When I moved here, I did not know English. This made it very difficult for me to communicate with others and make friends. I also could not understand the teacher and could not do the assignments, home works, or assessments. It was not all bad though. My differences opened many opportunities. Today, I use this as my motivation to do the best I can whenever I feel like giving up; I want to make my parent’s sacrifice worth it.
Zahraa Ali • Dec 10, 2021 at 9:18 am
This article has hit me on a much deeper level. As someone who has migrated a lot, it is unimaginable and heart-breaking to leave a place where your traditions thrived, where your religion thrived, where you had your friends, where you had your relatives, where you had a place called “home”; however, on an overall perspective, it is beneficial in one way. I think children who was born in America, should be very fortunate that their parents had the opportunity to move to a country with more liberties and freedom. For example, currently in Afghanistan, the Taliban is taking over rule and now women and young girls live in fear that they will not have the opportunity to be educated again. Because of the poor economic establishment, many families are not able to feed their children, so some parents had sold their children (young girls specifically) into child marriage. These young girls had big dreams, such as becoming a doctor, a teacher, a scientist, or a dentist and living a lavish life, much like us. Don’t take for granted about the things you have, instead work upon it, so one day, you may be able to change the world- I think that this article was trying to reach this moral, which it has perfectly done!
BHS News • Dec 14, 2021 at 1:30 pm
Thank you for sharing!