My experience in the United States has been very interesting from the moment I arrived. From the moment we made the decision to move to another country, it was very difficult to leave everything we knew-family, friends, work and everything-to have a better quality of life.
From the beginning we had many problems, starting with the arrival of my brother and father in the United States. My father’s entire family did not want to receive him. He asked for help so that he would be stabilized, but twelve days after arriving in this country, my father suffered cardiac arrest. This brought forward my time to arrive in this country.
The death of my father and my early arrival in this country was very difficult, starting with the language, which I knew absolutely nothing about.
When we found stable jobs, my brother and I began to have better stability, enough to be able to rent an apartment and be able to bring my mother, so that the three of us could be together again.
Once my mother came to this country, everything got better for my brother and me because we became a family again. But like everything in life, plans change and so do people.
Because my plans before arriving in the USA were to look for a job and study to be able to validate my degree, as time progressed, I stopped caring about studying, met a person and started a family with him.
Sometime later, with the help of the person with whom I decided to start a family, I went back to school to learn English, but for family reasons and time, I made the decision to leave school until a few years later. I returned determined to study and have a completely different career from the one I had in my country. Before I was working jobs in fabric or stores. Now, I am CNA certified. I have completed my medical interpreter certification and plan to obtain my LPN. My end goal is to become a registered nurse and I will continue to advance until I reach it. With these new certifications, I now have more opportunities that pay me more. I have insurance and benefits, and I have more time with my kids.
I am grateful to life and to my teachers for helping me and understanding that now my life is different from what I would have imagined.
