The Word Changes The Life

                The future is something that is hard to predict, it might happen as you wish, but it can also be totally different. All this depends on what you do in the present. If you strive for your dream, it will be come true; one example is my cousin, Nghia. His life totally changed when he knew he had to work hard for his future.

My cousin came to United States in 1992, when he was 11 years old. Nghia and his mother wanted to come to United States to have a better life; their life in Vietnam at that time was too hard and miserable so they wanted to change it. But life in United States wasn’t like what they imagined, it was even harder, and the biggest problem was language. But it didn’t make them feel dispirited. Two days after coming to the US my aunt started to find jobs and my cousin started to learn English while he was waiting for new school year. As you know it’s impossible to know English just in few months, and it was more difficult to him to learn English because he hasn’t learned English before.

And a new school year was finally came. He went to school with just a little English knowledge. It was terrible to him; he couldn’t understand any words about the lessons, he couldn’t communicate with other students and he couldn’t ask anyone to explain to him. He said that sometime he wanted to give up, leave school then find manual labor jobs , but when he saw his mother had to work extremely hard to support to him, it gave him fortitude to strive to learn because he know that only knowledge could help him, help his family to get out of that miserable life.

One time, and that was a destiny moment Nghia heard the conversation of his father with his sister, she said:” Only my children who were born here might have success here, your child he couldn’t do anything so I think you should ask him to come back to Vietnam, USELESS.” The word “USELESS” made him very angry and it was touching his pride. Since that time he tried to learn harder than ever, he wanted to prove for everyone to see that he could do anything like anyone, even better. He studied like today was the last day of his life. He studied anytime anywhere, at school he tried to talk with other students as much as he could about the lesson. He found help from teachers and asked immediately when he confused. After school he stuck in the library until they closed to do homework and find books which taught English. He had so many books that the backpack got as big as him, if you was looking him from behind you could only see his backpack. He often stayed up late to study grammar but not like other people who sit on the desk and study; he covered himself in the blanket and used the flashlight to study, he didn’t want to turn the light on because he didn’t want to bother his parents while they were sleeping. He was such a good child.

When Nghia was in high school, he actively participated in many school activities such as basketball team and volunteering. After school, he went to work to earn money for college. He did a lot of jobs like working in McDonalds, working in gas station, gluing flyers, delivering newspapers… My cousin is as intelligent as Newton; he won many scholarship and he was chose by many reputed universities such as UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Babura, UCLA, Stanford University, UC Davis and UC Stain Marry. He chose UCSF at first because it was closest to his house and he could study cardiovascular tuition was too expensive so he chose UC Davis. Somebody asked him why he didn’t choose Stanford or UCLA, there school are better for him, he said he didn’t want to stay so far because he wanted to take care his mother.

He had studied in UC Davis for 4 years then he continued in- depth studied of cardiovascular surgery in 8 more years, while he working practice in the hospital. In that hospital, he was chosen to be a leader of the group of seven best trainees, because he had a master’s degree in creative writing. And now, one more year, he will complete all his requirements and official becomes surgeon. One time I asked him if he ever felt hated toward the woman who said bad thing about him, and Nghia said:” only first time, I want to meet her and say thanks to her because if she didn’t say so, I might not success like today, she gave me the goal to strive for it.”

As you can see, my cousin became a surgeon; his life was totally changed by one word. He deserves all these successes. Anything can happen, people might not know what they will be, but they can choose what they want to be and they can strive for it. Endeavor is the key for you to makes your dream come true. Nobody born with intelligence or stupid, it all depends on you. Thomas Edison said: “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety- nice percent perspiration.”

 

Grandfather Immigration's Story

by Stephanie Zheng

I interview my grandfather’s immigration story. My grandfather named Benjamin; he is 77years old right now. When he came to United States, he was 56 year old. He moved from China to San Francisco on November 24, 1994. He has five children. In last century 80s-90s, his brothers and sister all moved to here, except him. But later, his sister became his applicant to apply he came to United States. Finally, he came here with his wife who he loves and important to him.

            His story can separated to two parts about his life in china and his life in United States. He bore in a poor family in china. He worked in his own small farm with his children. They all have different jobs. Every day, he needs to water the crop, feed the chicken, ducks and pigs after he wake up. At the end of the year, they sell the vegetables and fowl to get a little money. The children always hungry, because the family was poor, they don’t have enough foods. However the life was hard, but was happy. He told me that time he cannot forget forever.

When his sisters and brothers came here, wrote the letters back to him, told him how good was United States. He determined to bring his family to here, began a new life. Before he came here, he imaged all the good things have happened. When he took off the air plane, he got a shock. All the building and car were modern, he never see that at before. He lived in sunset neighborhood with his wife, his sister and his sister 3children where a dark, wet and small brunch. His sister was also very poor in here. My grandfather’s happy didn’t continue very long. He very needs to find another brunch to live with my grandmother. But rented a house was expensive to him because he cannot find any job. He doesn’t know English and how to use the modern machine. He became sad when the day past. Finally he got a job in the supermarket’s meat Shoppe. Every day began work in 8:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening. Stand whole day 14 hours to kill and clean the pigs, then packed the pork, sell to the customers. The job was very hard and dirty. The pork was heavy; so far, he got lots of rheumatism. The paid was very low, just enough to the rent. He told me, when he finishes the work, he always too sleeps to forget take off the bus. When he dreams, he always dreams he was killing the pigs.

Once, his boss escape, but didn’t paid to him. He started became crazy. The times goes by, my grandmother was worried him. When she walked on the way near the house, she found my grandfather who was looks messy and cried, sat in the floor. My grandmother told me, she also afraid because she didn’t know what happened. But she knows she needs to calm down. She sat down next to my grandfather, hug him. About one hour later, my grandfather felt better, he promise to my grandmother, no more cried by himself. They told me the house owner was nice, she allowed my grandparents paid the rent later and my grandfather find the new job soon.

The times goes by, they were became old, but love each other. When they told me this story, they laughing and smiling. At my eyes, this story was touched. Now, they come true their dream, they apply all the children to here. They always tell me how hard they lived in US at before, but always with the smile to tell me the experiences. Their immigration story affects me so much. Right now, I am a new immigrant, when I face the problems, I always will relate to my grandparent, they were brave and positive, never give up. Their attitude encourages me became a stronger person all the time… …

Survival Immigration

Survival Immigration 

By- Jenil

Meet Vrajesh. Vrajesh was born in 1970, He was born in India. Now he lives in San Francisco, 7464 miles from India. He is tall like a tree. He wears glasses. He looks smart and handsome. His hair color is black. I interviewed him about his immigration life.

                One day he decided to immigrate to USA. So he talked about his immigrating with his dad and his dad said yes. When he came to USA he lives with his relatives. His first job started at manager of hotel. In San Francisco. His goal to come to USA is for his children to have good education and bright future.
            

                He always misses all his national and religious festival like Diwali, Uttrayan and holi. He loves his country and he always misses. He always complains about one thing. He doesn’t like when he see someone smoke who is under 18 years old. He likes different types of food and infrastructure. This is how my dad immigrated to USA.

Frighten Jouney

by Hoang Tran
            After independent in 1975, there were 2 groups who fought for controlling the government. There were Republic and Communism. Then, the republicans lost the battle and the communist started oppressing. It directly led many republicans choosing to leave Vietnam. Then, communist began investing money to rebuild the ruins. They mostly repaired in Saigon where the battle happened. During the new political, they changed the value of money many times. It suffered people’s life and the economic went down very deep. It made people crossed over the border to migrate to better nation. This crisis was also a reason why my family wanted to move.

            Previously, my family was very well-off. Then, the economic was really bad, everything becomes very expensive, life became difficult than ever. Until 1981, my family began asking for crossing. Eventually, somebody was introduced the way to migration to either Canada or the United States. My grandparents had been speculating many times. They finally decided to let 7 members to leave. Even though, they knew that will be hazardous trip.

            Initially in spring 1982 to prepare for this insecure journey, they brought some clothes, money and treasure. Furthermore, the payment for this trip was not cheap at all. After, they paid for those people. They got a piece of paper to show what they need to do and do it safely. The journey began in Vung Tau. It is about 6 hours away from where we lived. At that time, the transportation was inconvenient to take a train. When they got there, it was freezing and the storm is coming. Then, they carefully followed the directions. Because of the storm is coming, it led the trip will be postponement couple days. They need to wait until the storm stops completely to ensure that everything is safe to begin the adventure. They waited in the small cabin and old cabin. Additionally, they must hide in that cabin because it is illegal to cross over the border without any agreement from the government.

            Moreover, it was very crowded to live in that cabin (40 people). Everyone was anxious because the trip had been delaying a day and the storm was keeping stronger and stronger. They got food everyday by a secret person. They lived there for 4 days. After the storm declined, they began their journey at 12.am. Everywhere is so dark that time, the boat owner separated them to 2 groups “Women and Children”-“Men”. Unfortunately, the police were patrol and detected this illegal crossing. They started chasing the owners and some other polices arrested the people. My family members stayed at last, therefore my father immediately swallowed 2 rings and the necklace. It means the trip is over and trouble will keep coming as crazy way.

Moreover, when they were in the prison, they realized that my uncle was chased yesterday and he is in the boat. Everybody felt very worried and hoped that he will be safe on this escape. At that time, he was 15 years old. He shared “I was so scared because I thought I will not survive on that situation”. He was exhausted and incredibly boring because he was living with 4 people who just knew him for couple days. He remembered the freaking happened in the third day. “In that morning, I woke up very early and went to the deck. Then I looked forward to the horizon. I immediately saw a big stone in front of the boat. It was about a hundred feet away from the boat. I was definitely overjoyed because I reckoned that I was very near the land. After that, I told to the leader about the black stone. They moved up and recognized that strange stone was a whale. They knew that whale could break that boat easily by other experiences. Therefore, they slowly changed to another direction. Then, they determined to turn back to Vietnam’s border as well.” He said

            Back to the prison where kept the escapers, they were released after one week there. Basically, the police did not find any evidence to accuse of crossing over illegally. Then, they went back to their home and brought bad news to their home. Everybody was distressing about my uncle. The next day, my uncle came back home, nobody believed that he was still alive in impossible case.

            In conclusion, my uncle married a Vietnamese American lady. Then, he can leave Vietnamese legally in 1989. He helped to take my family came to the United States

Jiafeng Du

                                                      The immigration
the story is writing about my mother, so I want to introduce her.

I am Jia Feng. My mother’s name is Ping Zhang, she is from China, she was 47years old, when she came to the United States, and she was 43years old. At the beginning, it was too difficult to live in the United States, because she only had one friend and her friend helped her find the work.

The reasons she wanted to come here are because here the air is better than her city and here is very beautiful, when she first came to the United States, before she came here, she felt is very difficult, because she do not understood any English, so her pay from the job was very low, she was poor, but she was very lucky, because met my father. His name is Myron. After my father likes her, then they knew each other about 2 years.

They got married in 2011 and then they lived together. They wanted to choose the house in San Francisco, so they chose to live in Balboa 45AVE, the reason are it is near the beach, and they like to see the beach.

After married, they traveled to New York, Hawaii and China. Then they took me to go to the U,S,A and began a new life after our life is better than before in China, and my father is very good and take care of my mother with me.

My interview was with Erlin

      My interview was with Erlin. He is 17 years old he is from Honduras. His family lives in Honduras. Erlin immigrated to the United States in November   help his family. He came to United States by plane. He thinks immigrating to the United States was very difficult. He is happy because he can live with some of his family in the United States. Life is difficult in the United States .

Label Ideas

Immigration Love Human Rights Family Friends Struggle War Cultural Revolution Childhood Memories Drugs Prison China El Salvador Guatemala India Bangladesh San Francisco Mexico Dominican Republic Honduras

Riding with the Beast

By: Orsy

This is history is about immigration and is narrated by Carlos Palacios

June 26, 2003 was a Monday morning from his home city La Libertad – El Salvador. At 4 o'clock in the morning Carlos Palacios decided to travel to the United States. This was a tough decision because he was only 16 years old and did not know how he could go on the road alone because he was a minor. The journey began in the city of San Salvador. For many hours Carlos walked with other people who were also coming to the U.S. they were walking across the bridge from El Salvador to Guatemala. When they arrived at the station Guatemala they had to catch the bus to the border between Mexico and Guatemala.

He came to the border city of Mexico called Chapas. Here it began to be hard, and he had to flee immigration officials. He had to wait at the train station all night, but there was no train that day. The next day for the train until 8 pm, As soon as the train appeared there were robbers. They took out their machetes and said, “Give me all your money”. At that time Carlos had only 50 pesos and they were stolen. After that he was beaten up, and they left him lying on the railway line. After many days of waiting, the train arrived. People called the train “the beast”. Carlos asked why the train is called like that. Some of his friends who had gathered answered the question. It is really hell to come on the trains. You must endure cold and hunger and sleepless days and nights. Some people cannot resist sleep,and fall to their death. from 1 am to 10 am the train stopped at the station. More than 250 people boarded the train. Some of them were friends from Honduras and El Salvador.

At around one o'clock the train started to move. There was a boy of 15 years who could not get on the train car. Unfortunately we lost his life there. After that, Carlos thought he needed to be more careful because it was too dangerous to come in these cars. We remained in the train for 2 days until we came to a place called Ixtepec. There Federal Mexican police waiting for all immigrants, Carlos jumped from the train. there was a federal police that followed Carlos for 5 minutes. He had to run very fast. Carlos suddenly saw a river and thought it was the best idea to jump into the river. He had to cross the river. After 5 hours he decided to return to the train lines, So he crossed the river again. The next day they said they could not get the train for up to 15 days. So his friends decided to walk. Within two days of walking they were very hungry, sleepy and very tired. They arrived at a place called Veracruz. Luckily there they came to a Catholic church that supported the immigrants and gave food, bed rest.

In Veracruz Carlos had 6 friends with him. They decided to travel to City DF, Carlos arrived at 3 PM. There were many federal police waiting for. Fortunately, Carlos managed to escape after hiding in some trees for 7 hours. Then he had to go for food. Some people gave him food and others did not give him anything. Carlos returned to the place where he hid from the police. At 1 am came the train to Guadalajara. Carlos then realized why it was called the Beast. The train was going about 45 miles per hour when he tried to catch it. The train threw him about 6 meters. He was not prepared to catch the train because he was too sleepy. he again stood up and attempted to catch the train. This time he got on the train. He felt a lot of pain from being thrown by the train the first time. He came to the city of Guadalajara where he had family members. He called an uncle who lives in Tlaquepaque. He stayed with the uncle for 5 months. He decided to travel to the United States - Mexico border. It took 8 days to reach the border.

Carlos contracted with someone bring him to the United States and cross the Arizona desert. This person took Carlos to the United States. After 2 days he called the brothers of Carlos because Carlos had to pay $ 3000 dollars.
The person led him to Los Angeles. There he met his brother Victor. Carlos had not seen Victor in 10 years. Carlos was very exited. Then Carlos moved to San Francisco, a beautiful city, where he lives with his family.