Moving out on your own can be scary. Maybe not as scary as immigrating to a new country, but still a time of uncertainty. Having something as familiar as the plate that you have eaten off your entire life certainly helped calm my nerves. 

A year after starting my career as a teacher, our landlord forced my family to leave our apartment of over twenty years because he was selling the building. My mother and my grandfather moved to one apartment and I got my own place. 

Having your own apartment comes with many challenges, and the biggest in my opinion, is the loneliness. When I lived with my family, we constantly had meals together, discussed our day-to-day activities, and spent time hanging out together when we had nothing else to do.

 When we moved, my mother gave me was a set of plates we brought with us from the Soviet Union. These plates are probably older than I am and very durable. Each time I cook and plate using those plates, I can imagine eating my mom's delicious cooking, always full of love and effort to make everyone happy. Even after a long twelve-hour day of work, she still came home and served dinner on those plates. I will always appreciate all that she does for me and reminisce about those great memories when using my blue plates.

– Gennady Ladnik

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant