[new americans]
“Yes, I’m serious. We’re going to the United States,” he happily said.
“Why isn’t he wearing his uniform?” the principal asked.
“I can’t believe it. Don’t leave me alone here,” I said. I did not want my beloved friend to leave me. I didn’t know if I would ever see him again.
“We didn’t have any money to buy one,” my parents replied.
“I have to go. My parents won’t let me live here by myself,” he replied.
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” the principal asked.
“Mo timilai samjhiney chu,” I said. I started wondering if my family was planning to go too, so I talked to my parents about it. When I asked, they didn’t know if we were going to America or not. After a few days, they heard news that we could leave the refugee camp. We went to the office to fill out the immigration forms that were needed. We only had to wait for the departure date. We were so happy.
“We were going to let you know,” my parents said.
My parents came from Bhutan. It is the beautiful country with mountains, where many people used to live before they were forced to leave by the government. The people ended up in refugee camps on the border of Nepal and Bhutan. In the refugee camp, my family and I lived in a hut that was made of bamboo. My friends and I had to walk to the small school. Teachers used to beat us if we did not do our homework. They used to beat the students with sticks or by hand, and sometimes they would even kick us too. I felt angry when the teachers beat me. In the camp, we used to get water from the tank three times a day. We got vegetables, rice, and oil from the UN Refugee Agency. Most parents had to work more than nine hours per day. We didn’t have much money to buy school uniforms, which were required for school in the camp. If we didn’t wear a uniform, our principal beat us, and they would call our parents to see why we were not wearing uniforms.
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One day, I didn’t wear my uniform, so the principal called my parents.
“You should have told us about your problem,” the principal said. From that day on, they didn’t beat me because of the uniform. In 2010, I heard about America. We used to think that the whole North America continent was the United States, and we didn’t know it was different. My parents didn’t want to come to America at first, because they didn’t want to go away from their motherland. “Wherever we go, we have to work for ourselves. We aren’t going to America,” my parents told me. They thought life in Nepal was just fine. They also thought it was easy to survive in Nepal. “America is better than Nepal, and we should go there,” I said to them. They didn’t listen to me. I started to think that they didn’t want to go to the United States. I was so tired of convincing them to go to America. When more people started moving to America from Nepal, then my parents started to come around. They realized that everyone was thinking about their futures. Finally, they said, “Let’s go. We are ready to go to America.” I was so happy! We soon went to the office of
Photo by Andrew Cullen
“Wow! Are you serious?” I asked.
