Lebanese Immigration Narrative

Music blasting, people dancing, and smiles all around is the typical setting of a Lebanese gathering. My culture plays a great role in shaping who I am as an individual with the various traditions and customs tied to my Lebanese heritage. Being a Lebanese American and having to cope with the blending of cultures has built a bridge of social and emotional challenges throughout the course of my life. Due to the cultural environment I grew up in, I learned the value of hard work, culture, and education.

Originally, my ancestry is traced back to Lebanon, a country located along the Mediterranean Sea, where my dad immigrated at the age of eighteen. He arrived in a country where he barely knew the language, had no family, and only the money my grandparents gave him. My father graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science while juggling two jobs at the time. The value of hard work and persistency in my family is powerful due to the struggle my father overcame. The realization of how difficult my dad’s immigration was, inspires me to remain dedicated to my studies and to believe anything is possible if you put your heart into it. …show more content…
They would always consistently speak Arabic at home so my siblings and I would have the opportunity to practice. My parents established various methods to keep the language intact such as making my siblings and I pay a dollar every time we spoke English in the house. This significantly boosted our speech quality and by learning Arabic I was able to discover my passion for learning languages, leading to my decision to major in speech-language pathology. Being able to express my devotion to help people begin life with a grand undertake, my Mediterranean heritage provided me with numerous paths to