The Hardest Thing I Have to Do, Essay Example

It is said that we either find doing something easy because we have done it before, or hard because we have never done it before. This is so because when one is faced with a new problem, or something they have never seen, it is always hard to provide answers. While I agree with that statement, there is one problem that I faced when I was young (migrating to United States and become an immigrant) and which still remains to be the hardest thing that I have ever done.  The things that I faced at that point in my life were new which made my life harder. Leaving what I was calling home behind and moving to a completely new society was not easy. At that time I had high hopes and expectation. However, during the first few years in the United States thing were not what I expected and nothing seemed to work. This paper highlights my immigration story and why I still think that this is the hardest thing I have ever done.

My story starts in Mexico, where I was born. My mother was a Mexican while my dad was a US citizen.  My parents separated when I was young, and my dad moved back to America. I lived with my mother for some time, however, when I was eight years old my mother decided to allow my dad to take me to America. My arrival to America was a dream come true. It felt like being in the world for giants. The city was filled with skyscrapers. Although, I was very excited deep inside my heart, I was worried about what could happen next.  Adapting to life in America was hard. Some of the immediate difficulties that I experienced include learning new language and adapting to the new culture.  However, the saddest thing that I had to overcome at that point was the grief of leaving my family and friends.

Starting school was another problem that I faced due to some reasons. First, my father was afraid of sending me to school because he knew I will not adapt to the new culture immediately. Besides, it took long than I expected to process my papers, so I was still an immigrant. Therefore, it took two years before I began my studies in American.

When I finally started my studies, I watched my dad very hard to provide for the family.  His hard work was the motivation that I needed and after some years I had started to adapt to my new environment.  In fact, I had started to perform well in my studies.  However after a few years later I received news that I hoped never to hear, my mother had died. It was very painful.

The death of my mother left my younger brother with no one to care for him. He also had to join us in America.   The burden of caring for us was heavy for my father. Since dad had to work seven days a week to take care of us, we hardly saw each other. In fact, during the few years that I lived with my father we had very few precious moments. His busy life made him to miss my high school graduation and many other important events in my life.

Despite this and many other difficulties, I managed to overcome those difficulties. The challenges gave me strength that I needed to overcome the barriers. Now I am happy to say that I am living the American dream. As I write the story, many things have changed, and no immigrants go through what I went through. United state has carried numerous changes aimed at helping the immigrant families cope with life in America. Nevertheless, migrating to America and overcoming the hardship that I faced in the first few years remains the hardest thing that I have ever done.