Life Story

Just over one year ago, I lived in a nation of vast turmoil. The streets ran wild with revolution and my family no longer felt safe. We supported the revolution, but our future was more uncertain than ever before, and I was preparing to begin my life as an independent man. My family made a choice which would change every aspect in my life. Though it is now entirely new, and not at all what I had expected, I feel fortunate that my family left Egypt and moved to the United States.

Perhaps the most apparent difference between Egypt and the United States was the language. In school in Egypt, I studied French, never anticipating that I would live in an English speaking nation. In an extremely short time, I was thrust into the English speaking world. My only previous exposures to English were through music, movies, and occasionally the internet, so I was by no measure fluent. Initially, learning was difficult, but as I started to understand conversation, I began to learn faster than ever before. As I began to really grasp the language, new friends flocked to return to me, and my new home started to truly feel like home.

It is difficult to be a new student at any time in one’s life, but it is particularly difficult to be a new student at the start of your junior year of high school. It is seemingly impossible if you come from an entirely different culture. When I left Egypt, I left more than my old home; I left much of my family, and all of my friends. This completely new beginning allowed me to learn one of the greatest things about American culture: the open-mindedness and open-heartedness within it. I was afraid I would be treated as an outcast, but instead I met new and wonderful friends who would help me acclimate to this new environment. Now I have several friends, all of whom just as eager to learn about Egypt as I was to learn about America.