Name: Laxmi Dulal
Laxmi Dulal
ESL 004
Personal
narrative essay
What is struggle? It can be any kind of difficulty that people go
through to achieve their goals. In fact, sometimes we cannot achieve
our goals without struggle. As Fredrick, “If there is no struggle,
there is no progress” For example, I have struggled with many
obstacles related to migration and through that struggle I have
achieved a lot.
Many of those
who have experienced migration, immigration, and exile have gone
through difficulties to achieve their goals. However, people who have
not experienced migration are often unaware of the kinds of struggles
that migrants, immigrants, and exiles go through. For example,
difficulties related to political conditions, economic situations,
religious freedom, and natural disasters are the most familiar
difficulties that migrants go through.
In fact, those
conditions have caused many of the major migrations throughout
history. If we look at the history of migration we see that there
was great migration during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
from Europe and some parts of Asia to the USA. People from England,
Ireland, Russia, and China migrated to America because of economic,
political, and religious reasons. For example, during the Communist
Revolutionary War and the Cold War between Russia and USA many
Russians were impacted and forced to leave their country. Russians
moved to different parts of Europe. Many of them moved to America,
adding lots of problems to their lives like culture shock, learning a
new language, and missing their families.
In my life, I have experienced struggles like those of Russians and
refugees. Shortly, after I was born in Bhutan, my parents moved to
Nepal because of a bad political situation in Bhutan. The Bhutan
government engaged in giving torture to Nepalese origin Bhutanese
like raping Bhutanese women.
I lived in a
refugee camp in Nepal for 18 years. It was so difficult to live as a
refugee such reasons as we lacked adequate health care and food for
nutrition. My mother told me that when I was three years old in the
refugee camp, my brother and I were close to death because of lack of
food. My small brother died when he was one year old. We were
struggling with our lives just to survive. Several years after we
were in a refugee camp and the United Nation High Commissar for
Refugee (UNHCR) helped us with food, clothing, and shelter. Our hut
was made of bamboo and plastic. We worked for local people to earn
little money so that we could satisfy our daily needs. Caritas Nepal
is the organization in Nepal which helps refugees and poor Nepali
people with their education. Caritas Nepal started to provide
education to Bhutanese refugees in the camps
We were
struggling to fortify our economic condition from our previous
downfall in 2008 we heard of the group International organization.
This agency helped many people migrate to new countries as their
third country resettlement. After a rigorous process we moved to the
United States of America in 2010. After we arrived at the USA we
started our new life. As we are new in USA we had many problems like
finding a house, job, and learning a new language and adjusting with
the environment. The Lutheran Children and Refugee Service helped us
to find a house for rent for which we had to pay 900 dollars every
month. We didn’t have even a single dollar to pay for it, so we
started to look for a job after the week we had arrived here. My
brother and I applied for a job in the Meat Company. So I started
working after one month. I was supporting my family financially and
my brothers and sister also got jobs in a hotel and the Meat Company.
At this stage we were able to stand on our own feet. In USA my
brothers told me to continue my education so they can support the
family. My parents were frustrated here as they didn’t know even a
word in English and my siblings and I were learning English. I joined
high school from 11th grade in September 2010.
During my high
school time I worked hard to learn language and other class
activities. I found the way of teaching in America is different. At
the first week I felt doom as I did not know the education system in
USA. The school building was big so sometimes I got lost in hallways
but I asked other students and security guards to help me out. I
learned so many things within a month. I started volunteering in
Migrant Education Program in Philadelphia. There I used to help other
migrant students to do their homework and other problems. I was proud
to be giving back my knowledge to other migrant people. Not only did
I help students but I helped old Bhutanese parents to learn English
and took them to the hospital and answer the phone. I am proud to
help them.
I applied for a
congressional award program, an award from the US Congress.
Fortunately, I was selected as a candidate for an award. On July 2011
I was awarded with silver and bronze medals from US congress. My goal
is to volunteer more hours and to achieve gold medal from Washington
DC. I am self-motivated that I passed through different obstacles and
I got success. Finally, I graduated from Northeast High school in
2012 with good GPA and grades.
I have gone
through struggles and gained experiences. I know how my struggle
helps me today to stand on my feet. I did struggle and learned from
it also never give up. I am always happy to give back to people. Most
of the migrants and exiles have also experienced many difficult
problems. Though they struggled in the beginning, and learn to
overcome obstacles. Life is a struggle. We have to struggle even
though there would be many obstacles on the way we get success. Try
and there will be a way to your dreams and goals so that you could be
a difference and serve the community at large.
