It was a midnight near the end of June. Airport security grunted “f--k off” when my father and aunt approached him; taxi drives smoked while waiting for the next round of costumers. The air was damp, but that did not matter because, in my aunt’s garden, I saw fireflies for the first time.
That was when I first landed in the U.S.
I spent the next two months in the library trying to learn English by reading books: started with picture books for two-year olds in July, ended with picture books for five-year olds in August. When I walked into my fifth grade classroom that September, I confused “times” with “ten” and “went” with “want”, but my teacher said nothing about my mistakes and only wrote down “good work” next to my homework. When my classmates …show more content…
When I gradually became accustom to the language and the environment, my parents just found jobs. My father would come home from the food production company with a T-shirt soaked in sweat in his bag in the winter, and my mother would work long into the midnight to finish as many pieces of garments as possible. The stress made them argue frequently over frivolous things.
Even though my grades improved, and I ended up in a specialized high school, not much had changed for my parents.
Watching how my father, a graduate, did physical labor with others who only had a high school diploma was tough; realizing how much my mother had aged since she immigrated was tough; waking up late in the night remembering how they were just sitting in their offices doing something that they knew well was certainly tough. I often find myself wondering what a good education and a good life right now could entail in the future. The answer I have found was nothing. If the future is so unpredictable, why spend time pondering
That was when I first landed in the U.S.
I spent the next two months in the library trying to learn English by reading books: started with picture books for two-year olds in July, ended with picture books for five-year olds in August. When I walked into my fifth grade classroom that September, I confused “times” with “ten” and “went” with “want”, but my teacher said nothing about my mistakes and only wrote down “good work” next to my homework. When my classmates …show more content…
When I gradually became accustom to the language and the environment, my parents just found jobs. My father would come home from the food production company with a T-shirt soaked in sweat in his bag in the winter, and my mother would work long into the midnight to finish as many pieces of garments as possible. The stress made them argue frequently over frivolous things.
Even though my grades improved, and I ended up in a specialized high school, not much had changed for my parents.
Watching how my father, a graduate, did physical labor with others who only had a high school diploma was tough; realizing how much my mother had aged since she immigrated was tough; waking up late in the night remembering how they were just sitting in their offices doing something that they knew well was certainly tough. I often find myself wondering what a good education and a good life right now could entail in the future. The answer I have found was nothing. If the future is so unpredictable, why spend time pondering