It was all of a sudden. It was in 2012, during the middle of 10th grade, when my father said to me four words that would change my life forever, “We’re going to America”. I could not have imagined it in my wildest dreams. I was given no prior indication of anything of the sort. We were living happily in my village in Sylhet, Bangladesh. It just so happened to be that my uncle who lives in the U.S. sponsored us and we all got visas to live in America. No one in our family expected it and we only had a few months before we were to leave for America. I had stopped trying so hard in school as I figured it would not matter. It was quite difficult leaving my friends and family and moving onto a life I had not known about. In Bangladesh, I was going to a government school where I was not nearly as prepared in English as I could have been and I was definitely not prepared for the culture shock I was about to experience. Six months from the day my father uttered those words, I had landed in JFK and paved a new way of life for me at my home in Queens. It was difficult adjusting from village life in Bangladesh to the hustling and bustling life of New York City from learning and perfecting English to adjusting to the different lifestyle. Notwithstanding, I am now a New Yorker who loves and values the spirit and opportunity that New York has to offer to its people.  

– Musa

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant