America the Beautiful

Almost four years ago around this time my destiny became different. I found out I was going to live in America for four years of my life. Those four years changed me.
The possibility of us moving to United States had been around for a while. I personally didn’t believe it was going to happen, but one random day, close to the ending of the school year, a miracle happened. I got home from school; the weather was getting hotter and hotter because summer was approaching, I remember hanging out in my play room and then my dad got home from work. I noticed he had a different affect from usual. He called my mom, sister and me into the living room and made an announcement.
“I have been accepted into the military deployment I requested, and we are moving to Coronado, California”.
Hearing those words, I felt shock, excitement, happiness for leaving the horrible people at my school, and then I got scared because I only knew a couple words in English, like “hello”.
My expectations of what it would be like to live in America were varied. I thought the majority of the people were going to be fat and chubby because McDonalds was born there and I also imagined myself dating a hot, sexy surfer boy.
My dad flew to United States several days before my sister and I arrived so he could get all the school paperwork and the house ready. As my dad drove my sister and me across the Coronado Bridge for the very first time, he told us, “Don’t get scared. There are few street lights and the habitants of Coronado might be vampires”. The thought of living with vampires made me feel freaky.
When I first walked on Orange Avenue, I felt like a movie star because everything was so fabulous and “American- like”. I felt like I was on a movie set as everyone looked so “beach –like” and thin unlike Honey Boo Boo.
My first day at the Coronado Middle School was hell. My dad and sister dropped me at the door with a map of the school and a Spanish to English dictionary. Everyone was in little groups happily chatting with each other, but I was the awkward loner chilling by myself in the middle of the school patio. The bell rang and everyone went to class but me. I thought, “What am I supposed to do next? Should I follow people around and see where they are going?” As my time was running out, I decided to follow the tall people around and see where they were going. Everyone went to class and I was just standing there thinking “Okay, I’m alone in the hallway; I don’t know how to speak English…poop”. Several minutes later, a teacher came out of the classroom next to which I was standing and asked me, “blah blah blah?” My cute little answer was “No Ingles”. She looked confused and then she realized I truly had to idea of what she was saying. She returned to her classroom and asked if someone spoke Spanish. Only one girl raised her hand. Her name was Nanci. She took me to my class and later I found out she was in my science class. We became friends and I wanted to be with her all the time.
That first day I had PE, and it was a disaster. When people found out I didn’t speak English they just looked at me bizarrely and some even laughed because I couldn’t understand anything they were saying.
Lunch time didn’t get any better. I had no one to sit with and I wanted to get away from the looks everybody was giving me so I went to the bathroom, locked myself in, ate my sandwich and cried.
Now four years later, I look back and see what moving to a different continent with a different language did to me. It changed my childhood and made me grow up more rapidly. I didn’t have my mother or grandma with me. I didn’t get help from my classmates when I needed it the most. My sister was busy getting her master’s degree at The University of San Diego, and my dad was busy working on a five-nation international military program at work. I was so alone, stressed out, sad, and I felt worthless.
These experiences have helped me become more mature, independent, wise, and responsible. I know I can speak two languages fluently and survive rough times. I handle bullying at school differently than when I was a little child. I have discovered things about myself. I’m artistic; I can write; I can put toilet paper on the houses of my enemies. I get better grades, and I know I am “worth it”, as the Pantene commercials say.
I am uncertain as to where I will be attending school next year. That scares me, but somehow I know I’m going to land on my two feet and the rest is for me to find out.