It was a wild time. A young uncontrolled boy not understanding what was going to happen in my life at such a young age. Coming to America. Adjusting to a whole new environment, new family, and new school. I was lost and young and innocent. I didn’t understand why I was not allowed to return to London, the place I loved and cherished ever since I was young and the place that will be in my heart for my whole life. This is the story of an immigrant adjusting to a whole new life and changing his whole way of life…

Let me take it all back, I was at my house packing my whole life into a small bag from that day. I was going to miss my whole childhood more deeply than ever. It all happened so quickly that we were on our way to Heathrow Airport, I was carrying one colossal bag on my shoulder. At first, I was scared to enter the Airport because it gave me memories of when I got bit by a dog leaving a big scar on my belly when I was around 7 years old. But then my brothers and dad assisted me with helping to cope with my memories. We had to stay in the airport for so long, so my brothers and I just started to talk about our favorite moments from our childhood and what we would do in America.

 It all happened so quickly; we were at Denver International Airport. I was frightened because I was missing London so much and was already homesick. After a couple of hours, my uncle and his kids came welcoming us with all their love giving us hugs and kisses. Then we went to our uncle’s house, where we had to stay for a bit. We all suddenly heard the doorbell ring, it was my aunt and cousins, they came in hugging and kissing us, welcoming us with joy. After hours, more and more family members came to my uncle’s house and we had a big party and conversed with my cousins about life back in London.

The first day of school happened in a heartbeat. I was lonely. The only people I could conversate with were my brothers, in a school full of thousands of kids. The first month of school was rough because I had no one to talk to except some Sudanese kids, but when they found out I was British everyone was mocking me and my accent. It was annoying at first but then I knew I had to take it as a joke. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the cafeteria eating this trash-ass food, I was missing everything about London. All of a sudden, a group of boys came and sat at the same table as me and we started a conversation, then, later on, we became best friends. I didn’t feel lonely anymore, I finally had someone to call a friend.

Fast forward to now; I have learned a lot from this journey of change and companionship. The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings. I had to adapt to these changes in my life and now I have become a bigger and better person than who I was 5 years ago. A quote to sum this up is, “There’s always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment. Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.”.