Moving can be both liberating and heartbreaking. You are offered a completely clean slate and a chance to to ally remake yourself with knew people, but you are also taken away from everything you know; your house, your friends, and your town. Moving countries is more than twice as hard.
When my father was considering college in his late teen years, he decided that instead of staying in Greece to be educated, he would go with his older brother to New York City. It was a completely new world. Although he had taken english language classes in high school, speaking it with real life people was a completely different ball game. He struggled to speak to people at his school, and became friends with other Greek immigrants, being that he felt the most comfortable with them. It took him a couple years before he branched out and became more involved in the American people/lifestyle.
My father's story sounds a lot like Amir and Baba's. They moved to American to get away from their deteriorating life in Afghanistan, and to get a fresh start somewhere where they were safe and free. Although my father didn't come to escape his country, both my dad and Baba struggled with the differences in culture, and opted to stay around people he was use to. They both made friends with others from their home country. Baba found his place in the Afghan flea market, and wasn't interested in learning better English or making American friends. He missed his country and his old life dearly.
For Amir, American was a place where he could be free of oppression, but also of his past and memories. He could remake himself, and he took the chance and was more involved in American life than his father. He went and graduated from high school, and learned a great deal more English than his father.
Moving is tough, and it is said that it takes people four years to truly adjust to their new home. It is hard to put yourself out there to people you have never met before, but once you learn what it takes, you feel more and more comfortable as time goes on.
When my father was considering college in his late teen years, he decided that instead of staying in Greece to be educated, he would go with his older brother to New York City. It was a completely new world. Although he had taken english language classes in high school, speaking it with real life people was a completely different ball game. He struggled to speak to people at his school, and became friends with other Greek immigrants, being that he felt the most comfortable with them. It took him a couple years before he branched out and became more involved in the American people/lifestyle.
My father's story sounds a lot like Amir and Baba's. They moved to American to get away from their deteriorating life in Afghanistan, and to get a fresh start somewhere where they were safe and free. Although my father didn't come to escape his country, both my dad and Baba struggled with the differences in culture, and opted to stay around people he was use to. They both made friends with others from their home country. Baba found his place in the Afghan flea market, and wasn't interested in learning better English or making American friends. He missed his country and his old life dearly.
For Amir, American was a place where he could be free of oppression, but also of his past and memories. He could remake himself, and he took the chance and was more involved in American life than his father. He went and graduated from high school, and learned a great deal more English than his father.
Moving is tough, and it is said that it takes people four years to truly adjust to their new home. It is hard to put yourself out there to people you have never met before, but once you learn what it takes, you feel more and more comfortable as time goes on.
This is a really interesting blog post and it has great info! It's nice how you could connect your father's story to Amir and Baba's. Baba definitely had a hard time coping. He first had the misunderstanding at the grocery store and a horrible job at the gas station. In Afghanistan Baba was prominent and respected, and this new life in America was completely different. I felt bad for Baba as he tried to hold on to his honor and adjust to his new life. If Baba didn't settle in an Afgan neighborhood and take part in the market, then he would have deteriorated even faster. Amir did have a better time coping, and I think its because he was so young, he wasn't established in Afghanistan like Baba, and he was trying to escape his past, even though it eventually will catch up with him.
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