Life is about change
Life is about change. Sometimes it is beautiful, sometimes it is painful. Every human being experiences changes during their lifetime. Those changes can be positive as well negative, but they always reveal the true version of oneself. They are challegenses. A change occurred in my life when I had to leave my country for a new world, the United States of America. I knew that leaving the house where I spent 16 years of my life would not be easy, but my envy to achieve my goals was calling me out. At the very first beginning, I started facing daily challenges, and part of me was telling to give up, but the other one was telling me to resist and remain focus on my goals. As months went on, I became familiar to the environment and culture, I realized that I was on the right track, and I learned that life does not get better by chance.
July 3, 2017 was the day of my flight from Conakry to Philadelphia. It was the moment that drastically changed my life as well as my family’s life. My parents always warned me that it would never be easy to live without them, and yet it is true. I remember my father’s words ” Do not wait on someone’s help, but never refuse someone’s help. Be respectful and useful to whoever you are going to live with”.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to pursue my dreams and live the grandest vision of my life. Going to school in Conakry has never been easy for me and my family. Private schools were expensive and provided the best education. Public schools lacked teachers and students stopped going. My father grew up in a family of 12 children, and my mother grew up in a family of 18 children. It has never easy for them to get the right education, but they always support their children into achieving academic success. I knew their stories, and it made me realized that I was lucky to have them. Back in elementary school, I used to be the top of my class and get my work done without being told. I was and still is dedicated to challenge myself everyday. I would nights reading books with a bulb because we lacked electricity in Guinea. I helped my younger brother with his schoolwork. My parents did never gave me gifts because of I was the top of my class, instead they encouraged to do more and more. Thanks to my academic success in my youngest age, my parents have trust in me.
My first days in the USA were not at all easy. I missed everything, my home, my bedroom, my friends, my family and my culture. However, it changed a little bit when I started school on september 7th. My first day at school was for the first time in my life, horrible. I knew no one and spoke no proper english. I used to go into a high school of no more than 10 classrooms, and now, I was in a school larger than the biggest mall in Guinea. I was amazed by all those smart boards and comfortable classrooms. Since then, I made a commitment to myself that I will do my best to succeed academically.
I like to relate my educational journey to my soccer experience in 7th grade. I go hard for the win in the classroom as if I was on the soccer field. My teammates and I always said to each other Zero-Zero, to remain focused that the game is not over. Even though we were winning the game, we considered that the score was being tied. We never celebrated our win on the field, because the next minutes were critical, and our opponent still had the opportunity to redeem himself. So when the whistle blowed, we went in our zone and attacked the ball. The same is true to my educational journey, it is my game and I have to remain focus so that I can win.
As days were going on, I was getting used to my school environment. My ESL class helped to me communicate better and I became involved in activities within I met new people. I committed myself to learn everyday a new word to improve my vocabulary, I chose honor classes to face challenges, and I worked as hard as I could to maintain As in all my classes. Every morning, I remind myself where I came from and that my parents have trust in me. It is a motivation for me to learn everyday. There is no doubt that I miss my home everyday, but one thing’s sure that at the end of the day, I learned more than yesterday.My junior year has been a success. I had been rewarded academically and have learned a lot throughout experiences. Yet, the game is not over. So I remain focus so that I can achieve higher goals and win the game. Senior year will be more remembered.
Leaving Guinea to come to the USA was rough, but I managed to become successful at every task I performed. I will continue making my parents proud of me, not only by succeeding academically, but also by breaking barriers and making history as the first generation high school graduate for my family.
