“I was born and grew up in the small Siberian town of Angarsk. My parents were simple workers, they didn’t have a car and didn’t travel. During my childhood we spent time playing near the cold rivers and forests, and every day was a new adventure for my brother and I. From those times of our childhood we just dreamed to have a roof where to live and to get a job to earn enough.

“I studied very hard in school because I wanted to get a chance to go for free to university. We started learning English in 7th grade and I could not understand where I would use it, or why should I waste my time on it. Still, I bought this book to learn English and decided that tomorrow, I would start reading and learning from it so that I could speak English well. 

“After some time I graduated from university with a degree in economics, and with honors, and then I moved to Moscow and started working in a large international company.  I took my English book everywhere with me, but tomorrow never came – I hadn’t started reading the book yet...

“A few years later I was lucky to win a Green Card and I took the big step of moving to New York. I am so glad that my English book stayed with me for almost 25 years. Every time I see it, I am reminded that if you want to do something, just do it today and it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand why.”

– Lara

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant