As my parents and I were getting ready to leave Lithuania for New York, I was faced with one big problem: We were taking only one suitcase and had no space for my beloved Playstation 1. After hours of begging and pleading, I finally got my parents to swap something out for it. At the time it was a small win for me but ended up having a substantial effect on the rest of my life. 

As soon as we got to New York, I was enrolled in school. Because I came from Lithuania, I spoke only Lithuanian and very little Russian - I had no way of communicating with the other children. This made playing with them and making friends extremely hard for me. However, there was no language barrier between my Playstation and me, so for the majority of my early years, I would go straight home after school to play some more Playstation. It made life a lot less lonely for me and eventually helped me develop my first real friendship here. People tend to overlook the assimilation aspect of immigration, but I truly understand now because I don't know what I would have done had not brought my Playstation with me when my family immigrated here.

– Adam

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant