The Immigrant Life of a High School Girl

Have you ever moved from a place that you are familiar with to another strange place? I had. I am a high school student who immigrated to the United States from China about 3 years ago. I was born and raised in China and never left my hometown before I was twelve years old.

Before I came to the United States, I imagined life in the United States many times in my mind. Even before I got on the plane, I was worried about whether I would not be able to get on the plane successfully. Obviously, my worries were superfluous. The journey from China to the United States went smoothly, and I arrived in San Jose, that place I have imagined in my mind thousands of times. After I arrived in San Jose a few hours later, I had a serious sense of discomfort, and this sense of discomfort came from an unfamiliar environment, people, and language. Later, I started to go to school, and this sense of discomfort began to magnify more and more in my heart because I found that when I was in class, I couldn’t understand what other people were saying and what teachers taught. At that time, I was very helpless, because when I wanted to say my thoughts to other students, I couldn’t express my thoughts. This naturally led to my two years of high school having no friends at all.

I was originally a relatively sensitive person, and this series of circumstances directly led to a decline in my self-confidence. After I got home, I couldn’t do my homework. I had to rely on Google Translate to translate, and I cried so many times. Later, after coming to San Jose for more than half a year, I entered the eighth grade. I remember that there was a science class in my eighth grade. The one I was most afraid of was that class because that class had a lot of more terms that I didn’t understand, plus that the teacher in the class sometimes let me answer questions, I don’t know how to speak at all, so when the teacher asked me to speak, I wouldn’t say that, and the whole class was watching me, then that led my inferiority complex was getting bigger and bigger.

Then a few months later, my parents began to find a tutor to teach me English, and I went to high school, met different people, and communicated with different classmates also improved my English a lot; my inferiority complex began to weaken, although now I still not have full confidence enough, but I am doing my best to show the best me.

After I went to high school, I discovered that, in fact, I came to the United States and it was not all disadvantages, because I was from a rural family in China, some of our resources might not be as developed as in the cities, so it caused some students to have to work very hard if they want to go to a good university. I think I am lucky, because my father took me to a place with more opportunities than my hometown, and the chance of having a good university is greater than in my hometown. I broadened my horizons. I met a lot of people from different countries and races. I also knew that there are so many outstanding people in the world, and those who are better than me, also work harder than me.

In fact, there are many times when we feel that leaving a place you are familiar with, a place where you were born to brought up with a completely unfamiliar place, what we think of is more worry, anxiety, and uncertainty about a new place; but I have to say after you arrive in a new environment, there are indeed difficulties, and there will certainly be discomforts. However, if you really come out of that time, what is waiting for you is that you already have the ability to no longer be afraid to adapt to the new environment, you have become stronger.