When my mom immigrated to the US from India, she was not able to take many objects with her; each thing she brought with her bore great significance. One object that is indicative of her move to America is her stethoscope. My mom completed medical school in India and moved to America after finishing her residency. When she got to the US, she was not able to immediately begin practicing medicine. She immigrated to Texas where she worked at a fast food chain before moving to New York, where she was a door-to-door saleswoman. This whole time, however, she brought her stethoscope from her medical school days in India with her through her travels. It is often very difficult for immigrants who get medical degrees in over countries to practice in the US, but my mom was eventually able to find a place to work. My mom became very Americanized when she immigrated; she wears American clothes, cooks American food, and almost completely lost her accent. She could have very easily bought a new, and probably better, stethoscope when she began practicing medicine, but she chose to use the one that she brought from India. This was one of the only things she had that reminded her of home, especially after assimilating into American culture so much. My mom's story is the cliche "American dream", in which an immigrant came to the US and was able to create an extremely successful life for herself. This stethoscope is a link between her old life in India and her new, prosperous life in America.

– Sabrina Rich

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