On Second Thought: the NEW AMERICANS issue

Page 20

THE RISK I TOOK By Chandra Dulal

People take risks to achieve things. I am the type of girl who lives by the motto: no adventure, no gain. People only comprehend their full potential if they take risks and achieve something important. For example, in order to learn to swim, we must jump or put our body into the water first. We might swallow a bit of water at the beginning and become disoriented. In order to gain something, we sometimes lose things, too.

Photo by Andrew Cullen

Nothing is worse than being hungry and living in poverty. My life as a refugee was a miserable life. There was no healthcare, no opportunities, unemployment, and also bad education. I remember someone telling me that there were seven refugee camps in Nepal, and each camp had about 50,000 people. I, as well as other people, had to limit the food provided by UNHCR [the United Nations Refugee Agency]. There was a high crime rate because of the high unemployment rate. In the refugee camps, there weren’t any strict or specific rules, so people did whatever they wanted, which led to chaos and violence. People in higher positions used to dominate the lower class people. People were discriminated against in the camp by the color of their skin, social caste, and religion.

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I never actually imagined myself going to America, but one day it was time for my family to take a risk and leave the refugee camp behind for a better life. I was on my way to the United States; destination Fargo, North Dakota. As soon as we landed in the USA, I was excited for our new life, but my body was exhausted from 38 hours of traveling. My eyes were tired from reading English and trying to recognize


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On Second Thought: the NEW AMERICANS issue by Humanities North Dakota Magazine - Issuu