Ahmed Alazzawi

9/30/2015
Comp 1
Personal Narrative (Revised)
Stephen Burns
Immigrating To America
Have you ever traveled to a country where you dont know how to
speak the language? Because I have. The story Im about to tell you started
three years ago. My family and I moved from United Arab Emirates to the
United States as immigrants, except my dad who stayed at Dubai working to
provide us with financial support. I was affected a lot, in many ways
positively and negatively. I went through a tough experience that made a
huge impact on me, I was introduced to a completely different culture than
what Id been used to, and I missed all my old friends and became homesick
for a long time. I had to adapt myself to the changes I faced and I never
stopped working hard to reach what I am today.
When I first got to the U.S everything was different from my
background, which came from the Middle East. Ive experienced and still do a
different culture, different traditions and different people that most of the
time couldnt relate to me. Back then my ability to speak English was almost
non-existent. After a month has passed in America, I realized that I had a
hard time talking and understanding other people especially in high school. I
came to the U.S in the tenth grade. During the first week in high school I was
introduced to a different school style, syllabus and books. Everything was in

English all the illustrations, videos, and books. I wasnt used to this at all,
and that was my greatest struggle. I was barely able to keep up with
homework and tests. I used to rely on dictionaries a lot to help me with my
learning. Fun fact: English is my third language, my first is Arabic, and my
second is Turkish.
Before I came here everything I studied was in Arabic, and the subjects
were a lot easier. It was horrible the first nine weeks. Normally in my first
year I was silent in the classroom, because I was unable to speak clearly or
understand what other students were saying so I didnt make any friends to
hang out with, and on top of that the high school I went to is Parkview and it
didnt have any Arabic foreigners, so I was alone at the school with no one to
talk to. All my old friends were still in the Middle East and it was very difficult
to keep in touch with them, because of the time differences when it was
morning for me, it was night time for them, and vice versa
During the second nine weeks of the tenth grade. I was able to catchup
and do well academically, and thats because of my efforts to be successful.
With my constant studying and badgering of the teachers, I was placed in
the top-ten list of students in my class. It took me hours of studying and
motivation to be able to do what an average American student could, and I
was still lacking many things. My first year taught me a lot of stuff, one of
them was how to depend on myself. That tough experience affected my
growth as a person. It changed me drastically to the point of being almost

adaptable to the new change Ive experienced, but not fully adaptable as it
requires more time to be immersed than what I have had so far.
After my first year in the United States, I was able to adapt to the high
school life. I started to move with the flow so to speak, because I became
much better in English. During my second year in America, I started liking
the new change and thought that I should be able to make friends, however I
couldnt because after my first year of not talking to anyone, everyone
thought I was weird. People around me didnt understand the problem I was
going through. They didnt know that at the time, the language barrier was
still an obstacle for me, so I couldnt make friends in high school. But I didnt
let my loneliness get the better of me, because I knew that I wanted to go
confidently with my dreams and make them real if I wanted to be successful.
Throughout the three years I spent in high school, I became thankful to
my experience because it taught me new things that Ive never thought of
before. I was very talkative back in my country, but here I barely made any
friends. I cant say my high school experience was perfect, but it was very
essential as it provided the growth and maturity that I wouldnt possibly get
elsewhere. It was thanks to Parkview that I am who I am today. Without the
help of my teachers and counselors I wouldnt have been this ready for the
next stage of my life. I am not going to say my high school experience was
perfect and neither is my life. However, I think that all the struggles I went
through were just normal because every one of us has experienced good
times and traveled down rough paths.

I miss a lot of things while Im here, the city I was born in, my friends,
my old habits, the Arabic food cuisines, and most importantly, my dad. But I
moved on and started to focus on different issues. My point is that living in a
different country is a very hard and tough ordeal, so its up to us foreigners
to make things work. Otherwise well never be able to reach the goals we set
forth. All of us foreigners agree that, we have to adapt to the new changes
we face and always be positive because we are bound to find some people
who can help us in our endeavors. Everything that has happened to me,
everything I have been through, has made me into who I am, and I can't tell
you how blessed I am to be in the United States. Thats why Im certain that I
will have a better experience through college, because Ill be taking all the
skills I learned in high school to a new and diverse community where I could
meet all types of people who I can relate to.