The Journey to America | Teen Ink

The Journey to America

December 6, 2023
By Anonymous

Being the first person in your family to move to a new country is just like England setting up colonies in the Americas. When you immigrate to a new country it is completely foreign to you. You are left to fend for your own and set up a foundation for your family. This is just the same as the colonies, England sent people to the Americas to colonize it so that it started the foundation for others. 

My mom wasn’t the best student, she was hardworking, but good grades just never came as easy as it did for most of us. Even then she worked hard and had a really caring personality. In Korea, there was still a huge discrimination against women, even though they were given the “same opportunities” they still had many disadvantages. A lot of people thought they wouldn’t be as good as men, just like in America. So when her aunt became a doctor, this really inspired her. Since she was caring for others, she gained confidence and inspiration from her aunt to pursue a career as a doctor. Her aunt was one of the most inspirational figures in her life. My mom, trying to pursue her dreams of helping people, decided to follow in the footsteps of her aunt. Seeing an opportunity to move to America, for a better education she decided to move there as an ELS. She came to New York in 2003 and continued her studies in Buffalo State University (UPI, 2019).  In America, speaking English was a key factor in being able to have a job. And especially when being a doctor. With this knowledge my mom studied hard to become a doctor, finding new ways to study and to memorize. Even with all this she still was not able to become a doctor. This shows the hardships of immigrants and the common struggle with the language barrier. However, this was still fine, her dream was to help others, and a different way she thought she could do this was by being a nurse. So she didn’t give up and pursued a different path. She was able to secure a job as a nurse in a nursing home in Sacramento. She then moved to Los Angeles partially because of new job opportunities and also because she misunderstood the price of living (). Here she got a job as a registered nurse. She worked here for over 10 years and this was where she met my father. After 15 years at the hospital, she got a better job at Kaiser Permanente, where she still is now. The life of an immigrant is hard, you are the first in your family to come to a foreign place, and with barely any support from your family, you are expected to start a new life. Even with all these challenges my mom was able to succeed more than she could have ever imagined setting up the first foundation in this foreign place we call home.



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