I came to the US during the pandemic in 2020. Before I left Haiti, my Grandmother gave me a set of coins, “Gourdes'” they call them. I was confused at first, she was the one who was staying behind. I figured that since we were in an economical crisis, giving me money that’s worth nothing in the place I was going was not a very smart move. For me, taking all my savings would make much more sense. Since the day I first set foot in America, to now, when we talked on the phone, my grandmother regularly asks for the coins before anything else. It sometimes feels like she cares more about their well-being than mine. I had kept the coins in my eyeglasses case labeled as things that were not useful , and worth throwing away. But as the years went by, these 65 cents worth of Haitian coins became the only things I had originated from the country of my childhood. Everything I came with got replaced, washed from the sweet smell of my home land  one way or another.  Keeping myself from replacing the Gourdes my Grandmother with American coins as tempting as it was, taught me to appreciate, and holding on to my culture. Keeping in mind that the things you were born, grown up with, will at the end of the day be what are truly yours.

– ATA

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant