An Immigrant’s Notion | Teen Ink

An Immigrant’s Notion MAG

September 24, 2018
By roaaalkhawaja BRONZE, San Diego, California
roaaalkhawaja BRONZE, San Diego, California
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Never let your persona venture far from who you really are as a person"


We uprooted our lives to chase a life sought by a starry-eyed dreamer  

We uprooted our lives only to find we are unwelcome in the place we try so hard so hard to call home

Time passed us by and our dreams became castles in the air, our eyes had shut, blinding us from all that is good

Our bodies became hollow shells, blindly fulfilling society’s demands

Few immigrants were left with hope, 

Few dreamt on, and few felt the air of freedom and hope embrace their minds in a swift breeze

Few believed in the immigrant’s notion which asserts our right to dream, hope, speak, breathe, laugh, cry, struggle, and conquer

Few were left to understand our right to live

Time passed again, yet this time, it had allowed the spark of hope to be ignited in the hearts of the hopeless

It enabled the revolutionary few to influence many and spread the life-changing words that empowered and taught us to embrace the struggle and appreciate the successes in life

These ambitious lessons are engraved in our hearts, for we have taught each other and learned all at once how to live upon the immigrant’s notion

We uprooted our lives to chase the life sought out by an empowered dreamer 

We met struggles and embraced them in a sort of revolutionary way

We uprooted our lives to accept that we are unwelcome by many, yet still accepted by the few, in the land we had learned to call home


The author's comments:

I was born in America to a family of immigrants, making me a second generation immigrant. I learned of the struggle my parents and so many others had to endure in order to make a living and raise their families. They traveled across the world only to find a land of corruption and encouraged misogyny. My free verse poem is about the potential hope that we must grasp onto and never let go of. “The immigrants notion” is just a term I like to use to explain the importance of learning from the struggles life gives you, and appreciating every ounce of success you earn. Being successful only comes after a struggle. Success may be easier to obtain for others than it is for you, but it just makes it that much better once you finally get it.  


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