Consequence of War

By Nicole Wu:   

          Samar is a sixteen years old girl that comes from Palestine, but her dad was born in San Francisco. So she immigrated to San Francisco because of her dad wants to be with her.
          When Samar was only six years old, her dad asked her mom to see her. At the same time, her mom was afraid that in her home country there was going to be a war. Samar's mom allowed Samar to come to San Francisco and live with her dad. After that, her dad had to go to court and ask for her, even though Samar did not want to come. It was not Samar's choice and her mom told her that she will be okay and safe. So Samar immigrated to San Francisco in 2003. However, at that time was her uncle went back to Palestine pick her up and bring her to here - San Francisco.
          When Samar just came here, she felt scared because she did not know any one in San Francisco, so that made her want to go back to Palestine.
          Here, the only difficulty that Samar encountered was English because she did not know how to speak English and the only person that she could speak in Arabic with is her grandmother. Soon after, she went to school, but at the beginning, she was so quiet in the class until a girl started to talk to her. Even then she did not understand, however she did not give up, and went home to ask her cousin for help. So shortly after she can began speaking in English.
          Although, Samar has been in San Francisco for eight years, but she still miss her family and her friends that is living in Palestine because they are important. Also, she miss her mom because her mom does not have to come with her adn it is very hard without her mom.
          Right now Samar feels happy because she had friends here and she has a better life. She also thinks that San Francisco is better than her home country because in San Francisco, there is more freedom and have many places to go, but in Palestine, there is a war and no freedoms.