Spring of 2012, the last day of Second Grade sounds like a fun time right? Well in my case it wasn't much fun. To understand the story we have to go back 1 month before my last day. My mom traveled to Mexico to get a legal permit (green card) . This meant I wasn't going to see my mom until summer of that year. I had to live in my aunt's house most of the day, only in the afternoon my dad picked me up to go home. My sisters and I were obviously sad but they were older and in high school/college they weren't affected as much as me because I was the little kid, yes the spoiled one. The last day of school before summer, I was set to travel to Mexico the next day after the last day of school, I traveled by bus. It felt so fast before I knew it was in Mexico, a completely new country with a different way of life. In 24 hours I went from speaking in English with my friends to talking only in Spanish which wasn't very good at the time. From that moment I knew I had to adapt to the new style of life I have been put into. Everything was different, some in a good way, some things in a bad way, the food tasted better than anything I have ever tasted, but living with only my mom in our house was a change in a bad way for a couple days until I adapted. I didn't realize that as soon as I stepped in that bus and crossed the border between the U.S and Mexico my life would change so drastically.
After a month of arriving I was used to my new home for the foreseeable future. That summer has hard at first but i can clearly say it was the best summer i have expired yet, yes leaving my dad and 2 sisters wasn't easy but experiencing the nature beauty of mexico (rivers , lakes , and waterfalls) was so amazing everything was different the nature smell of trees and dirt was so refreshing another big change was waking up to a silent town (Gto city) was a blessing. All this sounds fun but my mom was in pain and trust me when you see your family members in pain is not fun especially if there is nothing to be done to change that, we has to follow the laws and had to stay in mexico for a maximum time of 10 years fortunately our time was only 1.5 years which are easy to say but were the hardest time of my life. I attend 3 grade in Mexico. It was so fun and so much better than in the states but writing/reading Spanish was hard at first. Quickly I became fluent in Spanish and erased all my english. It happened so fast before I knew it I couldn't speak/write in English. At the time I didn't care but it affected me in the long run. Fast forward 1.5 years my mom got the best news she had ever received. My mom was officially a U.S resident that meant we had permission to travel back to the U.S and reunited as a family.
We were so excited to go back home and obviously we loved the way our family members treated us in Mexico and the way they made us feel comfortable but nothing compares to life in the United States. This was also a life lesson to value home and our family so much more. I respect every person that had to immigrate to give their family a better life. Leaving home and culture to move to another country and adapt is very difficult and people won't understand unless they experience it.
The writing process was fun; I was able to in a way relive my experience by writing about it. I'm usually the person who doesn't share many of my experiences but since this one was a life changing experience quite literally I decided to share.
I believe that must of been a hard experience to go through as a kid and the detail that was put into expressing his feeling as a little kid was able to translate over clearly and made me feel touched in a way considering I can relate a tad bit to the situation. I was able to notice how he elaborated on the situation of leaving his family behind as well as how he was able to tie back to that towards the end instead of leaving the audience wondering.
--Brittani Mondragon