The Journey | Teen Ink

The Journey

November 17, 2014
By sandyswitch SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
sandyswitch SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
8 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Coming to America is every African’s dream and is not only the dream of Africans. In Africa, we imagine America to be like a little paradise.We believe that everything is possible when you are in America. I will say most of these are true and some are not. As a child born in Africa, you will probably think that it was also my dream but sorry to surprise you that it wasn’t.


I say this in the sense that all my life, while my friends always made a big deal about one day going to America in future, I didn’t and never thought it will ever happen. One of the reasons is firstly, I had a fear of planes and nextly, I saw it to be beyond my reach. America was to me like another world which some particular people deserved to be there. I never ever thought I will one day be in America, sit in an American classroom and even breathe the American air. Even though I did not wish this, I wanted to see how it looked like.


Well our journey began when started travel in and out from one town to the other making documents and preparing for our trip. The thing is that my parents did not tell us what the traveling was all about but it became obvious to when we when to the American Embassy. As an African child, we believe that when you visit the American Embassy, you will go to America. Then one day, he called us and told us the news “we are going to America” he said. I was not surprised because from the beginning, I kind of guessed that anyway.


However, I still a little bit surprised about the news. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing “so I am really going to America”. Ever since then, I was really excited and I slept every night counting the days to that particular day. When that day came, it was both the most exciting and sorrowful day of my life. I got to meet almost all of my family members and at the same time, I saw myself leaving them. Before we departed, it was just tears and tears everywhere. My family was crying and we crying and seeing that we are leaving and would not see them for a long time made us cry more and more. Anyway, our trip was exciting and successful and I got to be in a plane for my first time.


You may probably see no reason why traveling to a particular place is such a big but when you get in my shoes you will understand why this is and will always be a big deal. Any way being in America is both exciting and boring. It is pretty exciting to be in completely different environment with new and exciting cultures. I still sometimes miss home and my family back home but I know that one day, I will get to see them again.   


The author's comments:

What inspired me to write this piece was our travel from Africa to America


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