Sorry

My name is Melodys, I’m 18 years old. I was born in Cuba and this is the story of who I am and the reason why I came to the United States.

As we all know Cuba is not a place where you can dream of becoming better, you were either born living well or you had to do things that weren’t allowed. My family was the second type, we went through a lot of struggles to have food on the table like putting their life in danger and even having a chance to go to prison. However, my dad didn’t care about it as long as we had food every day. My dad has always been a hardworking person striving to become better and he never complained. As for my mom, she gave birth at a young age, around 16 years old she had me, and at 17 she had my sister. My mom was a kid raising two other kids, which is devastating, she never had the childhood I had. She left all her dreams behind and stopped going to school just so she could take care of us.  However, she never complained and she never made us feel like we were a burden. Even though living in Cuba had many hardships I had many great memories there. I remember playing with my friends in the neighborhood and playing pranks. At school, we all knew everyone in our grade since we had known each other since we were 5.  When I was around 1 year old my dad’s family left for the United States leaving us their house. After a year of them leaving there my grandma was able to claim my dad as a single father. This meant he could take either me or my sister with him. However, my dad couldn’t leave my other sister and my mom behind. After making this decision he stayed behind and waited 9 long years until we were able to be claimed all together. When I was 10 years old the news that we were leaving for the United States came. When the day finally came and we were in the car saying our last goodbyes, it hit me. I had to leave my grandma behind which is one of the people that must influence me. She really cared about me and always felt sympathy for me. As we all the memories I had made, my whole childhood, I was leaving everything behind. However, my mom was leaving her whole family behind. She was not gonna have anyone over there, other than just us. It was a really hard time for her when we came here. I bet she cried every night however she never showed it. When I came here and started school I felt so much impotence, I couldn’t understand anything. Back then in Cape Coral mostly everybody spoke English and we all had a hard time communicating. Every day I came home from school I would cry.  I felt so helpless not being able to understand anything and I didn’t have any friends. During that time I wanted to go back to Cuba. It felt like it was easier that way, however, I knew my parents had sacrificed so much for us to be here. I couldn’t let their efforts go to waste. That’s when I started to focus on learning English, and I even started talking to people and making friends. It took a while to get used to this place but after a while, I started to like living in the US, mostly because I started to make friends and didn’t feel lonely. Another reason is that it was easier to buy food here and my parents didn’t have to work as hard. Which made me think that I didn’t want to go back. However  I still missed my old friends and my family but for the sake of my future, I had to work hard and help my parents. I’m always grateful for what they have done for us to have a better life. I have been here already 8 years and today I can speak perfect English and have made a couple of friends along the way. Right now my parents are better than when in Cuba, my dad is a truck driver which means he’s not home very often. As for my mom, she works at a daycare. Even though the economy is not very good right now we might be going through a hard time. However, I know that we will surpass this challenge like we have done before. That’s why I learned that no matter how hard things get, as long as you don’t give up, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. And no matter what happens you should always stay humble and not forget your roots.