Changes of My Life

Nowadays, more and more Chinese people leave their place of origin and immigrate to the Americas and to Europe. Thinking about geography and time, those people who immigrate to North America are furthest away from China. I am one of those people. Although I am far away from China, I don’t feel I have lost my Chinese identity. This is because America is a country of mixed cultures from all over the world. I feel I am surrounded by Chinese culture even in America, for I am living with my family in Chinatown. Nevertheless, there are still changes that happened to me when I moved to the U.S. My immigration was a milestone of my life.

First of all, my road to education has changed. I graduated from high school before I came to America. The next step of my education was going to a 4-year university. Since I didn’t continue my higher education in China, I am studying in college in order to go to a 4-year university now. In my opinion, studying in university and college are utterly different. I need to spend much more time in college before I can transfer to a university. Meanwhile, most of my high school classmates back in China have graduated from university already. Comparing them with myself, I feel dispirited. I am far behind them just because I immigrated. They might be jealous of me because I have the opportunity to study in America, but what I want to say is that I am the one who is really envious.

In addition, living with my extended family is also a change for me. In China, I lived with my nuclear family, just the three of us in the house. For now, I am living with eight people, my aunties, my cousins, my uncles, my father and my granny. I prefer living with my mother for sure. Owing to it’s not that easy to live with the big family, living with them was a challenge for me at first. There are things I need to pay attention to while living with my extended family. For example, my family members have some different daily schedules. On account of that, some of them have different jobs while some of them are students, and some of them don’t work. I need to do homework in the living room, for I can’t disturb my aunt and cousin who are using the same room as me. However, sometimes I can’t concentrate to work on my homework. I need to put on headphones to get rid of the noise that comes from my family who watches TV in the living room at night. I don’t have a room for myself, but I want it so bad, so I can have my own space and privacy.

Finally, the biggest change to my life after immigration is that I needed to get a job. I didn’t worry about every penny I spent when I was in China. My granny worked in the U.S. She supported my nuclear family as many immigrant families do. She was old enough to retire by the time I immigrated. Moreover, my father divorced my mother. Then, he had a second marriage and a new son. He has his new family to support, and my granny quit supporting my mother and me after retirement. I don’t have any support from anyone now. My mother lives in China, and her health status is too bad to work. I work to feed myself and my mother. I feel exhausted every time I come home from work, but I never complain about it. It’s my duty. Luckily to say, I am in the U.S. Otherwise, I couldn’t have supported myself and my mother and my tuition on my own in China.

In conclusion, my immigration was a turning point in my life. Sometimes I feel fortunate for immigrating to America, and sometimes I regretted about it. Honestly, there were challenges for me due to my immigration. I had a very hard time getting used to it. I can’t say whether it was right that I immigrated. I didn’t decide to immigrate; my family decided for me. Somehow, being in America gives me an opportunity to explore more in my life. Now, I am independent and I am making decisions on my own. I hope I can make my life more brilliant with my own decisions in the future.