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My father and I outside out our apartment in Brighton
Boris travelled to New York and Boston to see if they could afford any housing in the city. He fell in love with the Russian and Ukrainian community in Allston- Brighton. They once again packed up their bags, this time to their actual image of America: Boston.
My family of four and two dogs moved into a small one bedroom apartment in the center of Brighton. My mother took a job as a secretary at a dentistry office and my father began to study for his bachelor in Business. He would study all day and then work at Stop & Shop as a stocker in the middle of the night. My grandparents fell into the same routine and became owners of Quiznos, a sub shop.
My family's first time in the snow since living in Texas
My mother pregnant with me in 2003
As my family became more comfortable in Brighton, my mother got pregnant. There would now be five people living in a one bedroom apartment. My parents took on extra shifts after my birth so that they could soon afford their own place. They rented an apartment only two blocks away from my grandparents. No one could watch me during the day so my parents hired two Russian nannies. They saved up so that I could go to a Ukrainian preschool in Brighton.
As I graduated from preschool, my parents began to plan for my future. They saw two options: live in a worse area and pay for private school or live in a wealthy area that already had great public schools. They searched for a home in the entirety of the Greater Boston area and finally found a house they could afford in Needham. It was old and needed endless work to be considered a “home” but nonetheless it would work. At the same time my parents had both found white collar jobs in the industry they had gone to school for. My mother worked at Athena health for more than a decade before joining a startup in 2018 and my father continues to work in his first company, Panagora. My grandparents initially shared our home in Needham with us until they could afford their own house one street away.
picnic in Brighton
Today, my parents now have two children and a dog in the same house they first chose in Needham. All the renovations have been completed and at a quick glance one could even consider them American born. However, at closer look, their roots are still close with them. Katya complains that despite the amount of progress she has made on her public speaking skills, she hates the looks she gets from her Russian accent. Similarly she reflects that looking and sounding foreign has definitely impacted the amount of opportunities she was given in America. She wishes that people did not assume that if someone does not speak English then they are not intelligent. Still, she is immensely grateful for the life she was able to build in Boston. Now her goals have shifted from herself to her children. She is excited for my college experience: “I went to my college in San Antonio because I had to and could not afford a better education. Education in America is essential. I am so relieved that we have the resources to send you to a school of your choice. You can take the opportunities we have given you and do whatever you want. I only wish I could have had that back in my teenage years.” While my family did the best they could with what opportunities they had, they have created an impressive life which no one would assume began in a studio apartment in Texas.
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