Personal Narrative: Moving To Chile

I was born in Colombia, South America and lived there until I turned seven. Before I moved to the states, I attended a public school and was on the competitive swim team for my school. I earned many awards the year and a half I swam for my school. I took pride in competing with girls three to four years older than me. I also remember how different things were there than they are here in the states.

This autobiographical essay will define my experience as a Dominican immigrant living in New York City. Being an American citizen with a Dominican background are extremely relevant to the process of political socialization. My family background is founded on the principles of democratic values, which taught to me by my mother and father. In New York City, I found a “melting pot” of different immigrants that allowed me to feel more accepted as a Dominican living in the United States. More so, these aspects of the socialization process provided a foundation for my belief in democratic values throughout my life.

My parents and I moved to the Dominican Republic when I was thirteen years old. Living there as a young American came with many challenges. One of the biggest threats against foreigners is violence. Within my first years of living in Dominican Republic, I had experienced two incidents at it firsthand. The first incident happen a week before school began, I was mugged by two assailants; man on a motorcycle and another man on foot.

There were rice plants on my left and farm animals on my right. I grew up in New York City, so you can imagine the millions of questions that were running through my head. I’d never been to the countryside of the Dominican Republic before, but when I finally did, I couldn’t be more ecstatic, despite the scorching Caribbean sun burning down on my brown skin. I hadn’t visited the Dominican Republic since I was four years old. All I had was vague memories of my grandmother’s boisterous laugh and the chickens in the backyard I loved chasing after.

It was so hard moving because I felt like I was leaving all of my friends behind. Maybe my old friends have moved on

When I lived in Dominican Republic my childhood was the best. I was surrounded of my friends and cousins. I loved to play with them. When a woman got pregnant I always went to her house to help her. When the baby was born I passed the all day in that house with the baby.

Moving to Dominican Republic as a young American came with many challenges. One of the main challenges was crime; crime is one of the biggest problems for tourist. I moved to the Dominican Republic at the age of 11 with my parents. I was in middle school when I had my first close encounter with crime during the summer, a week right before school started. I was robbed by two assailants, one on a motorcycle and the other man was walking.

When I was thirteen, approximately a year ago, my family took a vacation to Cancun. The trip was pretty cool. Cancun was warm, tropical, and most of all supplied endless amounts of food in the hotel. Like most vacations, people want to get the most they can do with their time there. For me, my last bit of fun would have been crashing into the waves, I had discovered, on the new beach in front of my hotel.

One day when I was in my trip to Dominican Republic I looked outside the window,mami can we go to that fish restaurant I said” yes we are going there. When we stop at the fish restaurant I saw maracas My mom, Step dad, baby brother and I were eating I asked the water are those maracas for free no there only for 30$.Can I have those maracas please ok. When the food came I was playing with the maracas, my mom said stop you almost woke the baby up you can play with that when we get home eat your food ok. I said to myself this food is amazing.

The first eight years of my life, I spent in India where I was born. Growing up I was constantly reminded by my parents that I needed to make them proud by getting a good job and living a good lifestyle. They told me this because they did not want to see me live a hard life like they did. When I was nine years old, I moved from India to the United States of America. The reason why I moved to America was not because I was living a bad life in India, it was so that I could have a better education and more opportunities in life.

“I’ll come back to visit sometime,” is what I am obligated to tell to every single one of my friends I made. Since I was young I never had trouble making friends, but keeping them was a challenge to me. It wasn’t because I was mean or because I didn’t want friends, it’s because I moved around a lot when I was younger. I was born in Fresno, California, but then I moved to Mexico at a really young age so I was raised there until I was five years old.

Over the Border Every year my family decides what to do for the holidays and where to go. Most of the time I have no say in it because my uncles insist on visiting or they invite us over. It doesn’t help that all of my family lives in Texas, California, and Mexico. This year has been the first time that we have spent Christmas and New Years here at home with just my family in a long time. Last year we took a long trip to Chihuahua, Mexico which is the biggest part/state of Mexico where my mother is from.

Everyone has a personal experience! One of the experience I had is the chance to go to Mexico for the first time. I was much excited to go and finally experience, myself all the things my friends and family would talk about. One of the reasons I want to go to Mexico is because I want to see how my parents grew up there and go around and explore the place. I’m very excited because I would be able to tell my friends how it is in Mexico, since we’re always talking about it.

It was hard for me to tell my friends that I was leaving and going to another country. We started packing all our belongings ready to go the airport. Before going to the airport, I went to my friends and said goodbye to all of them. I told them that I was moving to the U.S. They felt sad about the news I told them.

I reunited this summer, with two close friends that had moved away from Dubai in 2016. Adapting to them no longer being in Dubai and at ASD anymore was a challenge my Freshman year. It was difficult to imagine that they were even still a part of my life. However, reuniting with them allowed me to understand that no matter the location or distance, they are still a part of my life, and that it takes a lot to break the bond that has grown out of years of togetherness. This is also true of family life.