Sorry

My name is Saleth, I was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba on September 20, 2009, and this is my story… Since I was little my biological dad was never really present in my life, so it was my  19 year old mother at the time giving birth to a baby alone. Growing up, since my dad wasn’t around, I would go to his house once a year but I would end up crying because I missed my mom. He never really took good care of me, when I would go to his house I would be left in a bed not big enough to fit me. It was extremely hard for my mom after she left him, because even knowing that he had a child, he didn’t give her any money nor helped her in any way. When I was about 1 and a half years old, my mom got a boyfriend who little did I know would end up turning into my hero for life. At that time, I didn’t even want him to be around me, talk to me, or hug me, every time he’d do so I would scream to my mom just so he would leave me alone. As I started growing up, I accepted him into my life. In 2014, his family came to the U.S. but he stayed in Cuba just to be with my mom and I. At this point in my life I started to develop so much hate towards my real dad. After a few years, my stepdad made the big decision to move with his family so he could give us a better life. One very unexpected day I arrived home from school and my mother greeted me with an unexpected surprise which we both were eagerly awaiting. We were going to the U.S. but everything has its ups and downs. The day finally came and we headed to the airport to take a flight to Guyana,we had to spend 15 days there to get all our paperwork approved. For a 9 year old girl who only had a teddy bear and didn’t know what the internet was, it was too boring. until my mom put the internet on my old tablet and I discovered YouTube, empecé a aprender palabras en inglés gracias a videos random. The days passed until the day of the interview arrived, sitting in a waiting room for hours was not very fun until finally it was our turn to enter a very strange room, first my mom came in and meanwhile my dad took care of me outside, until it was my turn to go in they sat me in a high chair and the woman started asking me things as if this were a job interview. In the end we left that place and after a few days my mother received the news that they accepted us to go to the United States…Pero no te creas tu que ya de aquí en adelante is gonna be all happiness and fun no no. A few days later, my mom and I got on the plane to go with my dad and his family. The welcome was very nice until it was time to go home. Time passed and it was time to enter 5th grade, it was hell for me, I didn’t understand anything, they bullied me and I got stressed out during my homework. Hasta que mi mama empezo a notar como yo me empezaba a sentir mal. Until one day I couldn’t take it anymore and I started crying in front of my mother that I wanted to return to Cuba that I no longer wanted to continue in this country and the worst of all is that I made her feel bad. But my mom did everything possible to make me feel good again. Pero “every nightmare turns into a dream” right? The quarantine started and all the progress started to get more difficult for me, my studies with English were even more difficult until middle school started.I met my best friends there, they didn’t know English either, but we learned little by little. Halfway through 6th grade I already spoke fluent English. Since my English started to increase my grades started to go up too and from then on my nightmares started to turn into dreams but those dreams are still in progress because they are going to pay off, i just know that one of those dreams is to make my mom proud y eso ya lo consegui.