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Through a period of about five months, I worked on remodeling my home basement. I started with cleaning out space than followed up by planning and budgeting the renovation project. I engaged in producing something that I have long hoped to complete since the summer of 2019. It includes creativity, labor, design, and, last but not least, engineering skills. Unfortunately, with the appearance of Covid-19, I had slow progress. I had the idea of putting forward a project that would benefit my family even after I leave for college. I wanted to leave behind something that my brothers can look up too. It’s the first time I ever did something like this, but I learned a lot from my thinking process. I learned that having a “finished product” and a finished product are two different things. One is putting in the work and being satisfied with the effort put in. While having a finished product is attempting to hit every point and being content with the outcome according to the effort put in.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/177cJVq4aqj7rt0bu9xI0S1H37WUxQU9kjU2B9LztPpk/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone I combined two of my passions, Genetics and Engineering to create a website that parents can go on to look at certain traits that their unborn child could have. I used my knowledge of genetics to do the science portion of my site, aka the information that is given back to the user. I needed to learn HTML, a content language and CSS, a styling language, the engineering part, to complete my site so that was my first step. Through watching multiple hour long videos I began to pick up the basic concepts of both languages. From there I built my site into what it is now. My last step is to publish my site for others to use, which has been giving me trouble so for right now, the site lives on my computer. (This might get figured out later though!) Attached below are pictures of the home page of my website.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wNQ7xn1Gn8JOQULJEVYIARuiq3Yqg1lLF_fKfNmWivM/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone I decided to create a mini documentary of my life. The purpose of this was to tell the world my story. I wanted people to know that even if you look different because you have a disability, you should still love yourself and be proud of who you are. Having a disability does not mean you are not special or should think little of yourself. if anything your disability makes you stand out and unique. In the documentary I tell my story in the hope of inspiring others and myself. Throughout my life it took a long time of gaining confidence in myself to reach this point of speaking my truth. When you are younger you just wish for the whispers, stares, and laughter to stop everytime you come outside. Or in my case to not always want to hide behind my mom or sister so people would not laugh at me. Telling your story helps people understand you dont think you are different than anyone else. It also shows you love yourself for who you are. My capstone taught me my voice can be a powerful weapon and that i need to use it. Ultimately I hope people be proud of who they are despite of anything they encounter in life. Disability or no disability everyone is beautiful in their own way. We can never let what others think of us stop or block our path of being the greatest version of ourselves we can be.

For my Capstone, I did volunteer work at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. I was a volunteer in the Child Life Department- Child Life specialists help families and children cope with the stress of hospitalization. As a volunteer in this department, I was tasked with supervising the playrooms in the hospital and doing bedside visits to patients who were in isolation, bringing them toys, and playing games with them. I went from 9:00-1:00 every Saturday. I spent the first few months of the school year retrieving all necessary documents, clearances, and health screenings for the position. I then had to attend three separate orientations, to get the best possible understanding of the responsibilities. Finally, during my first shift, I shadowed a veteran volunteer to get more comfortable with the layout of the hospital and see the close-up interaction with the children. Unfortunately, I was only able to complete 3 full shifts before the hospital closed to volunteers due to COVID-19. Even in the short amount of time I was there, I learned so much about what people can do to make young children feel safer and cared for in hospital settings. Many patients feel very alone or confused in the hospital; having toys, art projects, or games can change their entire experience. I loved this Capstone because I had the opportunity to connect with young children and explore elements of what I want to do in the future. Although my capstone timeline is finished, I plan on returning to St. Christopher’s Hospital when it is safe and continuing my volunteer work.

What I did in my Capstone was make beats which I rapped to make an album. Each rap is about an environmental factor like climate change or pollution. I wanted to make raps talking about our environment and letting people know that if we keep this up our planet will not be able to recover. I made the beats on Garageband which is a music app on iPhone and it has a lot of music options to create anything you want. With each new beat, I made it progressively got better and I really felt the growth comparing the first beat with the last. I like making beats and I really wanted to apply that to my capstone in some way. The link to the album will be provided below this summary if you would like to listen. You’re going to have to copy and paste it in your URL. Also, the lyrics are in the description of each rap but the instrumentals are there if you want to listen to the beat or you want to try rapping on it, talking about the topic yourself.

(Presentation link) https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AWbOkmtULUxfC2YDejKPNDBPIllUKM-nm-bCk9ScVMo/edit?usp=sharing

Nature’s comet (album link below)

Bibliography link https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OhKjDryrJASZzGXlTJxAw9xQjS6pigKmNMcVUWCZZfw/edit?usp=sharing

As Philadelphia’s 2019-2020 Youth Poet Laureate, the intended goal for this capstone and my laureate project was to create a youth-based poetry anthology, centering around the broad theme of Philadelphia. The collection would have existed in a digital form, and would not only provide a voice for underrepresented poets, but also reveal the vast experiences of life in Philadelphia. Throughout the process of creating this anthology I ran into obstacles, such as realizing the difficulties of creating and distributing physical anthology books by May. Instead, I decided to create an online collection that would be more easily accessible. As time progressed and the number of submissions to the anthology remained low, I further determined that my capstone should be modified to highlight my entire year as Philadelphia’s Youth Poet Laureate. I wanted to create a digital time capsule that shows the various events, readings, performances, workshops, and poetry commissions that I worked hard on throughout my tenure as laureate. The laureate experience taught me invaluable lessons on how to communicate with event coordinators, how to lead as a young person, and how to establish a voice as an artist. This capstone serves to document the civic position for all to see what being the laureate entails, and to show rising young poets that their voices are valuable. This website is a collection of images, poems, documents, and videos that represent my time as Youth Poet Laureate, but it also exhibits just how powerful a young poet’s voice can be.

We’re so honored to share Serenity’s Capstone. This is an incredible example of what SLA students can do, even under the most challenging of circumstances.

(slightly unfinished due to covid)

SLA Q2 report card conferences with students, families and Advisors will be held on Thursday, 2/6 and Friday, 2/7. Families should consult with their child’s Advisor(s) to discuss conference times on one of those dates.

Students will have noon dismissal times on both 2/6 and 2/7. Class schedules on each day will run as indicated below.

Thursday, 2/6

08:15 - 08:55 C Band

09:00 - 09:40 D Band

09:45 - 10:25 E Band

10:30 - 11:10 A Band

11:15 - 11:55 X1/Y1 Band

11:55 - 12:00 Advisory (Transpass Pick-Up)

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

Friday, 2/7

08:15 - 08:55 B Band

09:00 - 09:40 C Band

09:45 - 10:25 D Band

10:30 - 11:10 E Band

11:15 - 11:55 X2/Y2 Band

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

Author’s note: When reading my essay I would like you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

Power is a privilege. Being able to make choices for yourself and having the power to be whoever you want to be can be exciting, but this power can be taken away when labels are put in place by others. Labels are created to confine people into a box; to limit them and make them feel as though they do not belong. This often happens to immigrants that come to the United States, seeking a better life than what their home country could offer. The United States gives off the impression that all are welcomed but in reality, those who flee to the states feel as though they do not belong because Americans never let immigrants forget the fact that they were not born here. Already feeling misplaced because they have lost their homes, the center of their universe, just to come to a place where they believed they would be safe but really isn’t what’s being advertised. Most Americans tend to focus on themselves and when things interrupt our system we usually push them to the side so we don’t have to worry about them; I think that’s when labels come into play. I don’t feel as though it’s to be seen as being self-absorb or being selfish, it’s just that most Americans prefer to stay in their own world. By giving people a label it limits them and puts them into a box that others can push to the side. A lot of people have the mindset of if it isn’t a problem for me then I don’t want anything to do with it, I know most of the time I personally act that way but I have to catch myself and come to my senses. America has a lot of crappy components within itself, which is why its people focus on that rather than the outside world because we can not help other people’s problems as we’re still dealing with our own. This tends to be the case more if you’re black causing you to be desensitized on another level. I feel like Americans began to see certain stuff as normal because of how often it appears so when it happens to others it’s not as shocking or overwhelming for one to handle. When following most narratives about immigration the concept of labels is heavily represented. From them being seen as being poor, illegal, thieves, being helpless, or that this is the perfect life that they’ve always dreamed of. These labels are distributed by people who choose to forget where they have come from. It amazes me because they are being seen as someone/ something they want to be seen as but now immigrants are only seen “through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of the world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” Forgetting that 98.4% of the United States’ population isn’t native to the land meaning that technically we all deserve at least one of the labels that are constantly being given out. The fact that many people believe that immigrants should have the “perfect life” now that they have come to America but are limited. The concept of the American Dream doesn’t really seem to be everyone’s dream. I wanted to focus on a narrative by a young Nigerian girl who didn’t believe in this dream. She found herself trying to fit into the American standard but when she was in Africa she felt free. No longer feeling the pressure to be someone she isn’t. The feeling of not having a home is bad enough because home isn’t just a building. It isn’t just somewhere where you place your head at night. It is the thing that your heart yearns for when you are lost, mentally or physically and when that is taken away a part of you is taken away too. So imagine not having a home and coming to a new place that doesn’t allow you to consider it your home; it would suck.

Works Cited: Nazario, Sonia. Enrique’s Journey. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014 Okoro, Enuma. “A Return to Nigeria.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2014, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/a-return-to-nigeria/?hp&rref=opinion

INTRODUCTION: How do we identify home?

In my essay, I wrote about what home means and the struggles many refugees face when fleeing to other countries in hopes of safety. I used the film Beasts of the Southern Wild to get my message across. As you read, I’d like you to think about how you view home, and how we treat and think about refugees who’ve lost their homes.

ADVANCED ESSAY #2: HOME: AN EXTENSION OF SELF

In a brightly lit room, white walls and shutters take place in the background, along with a light pink toy set. Two young white girls in dresses stand towards the back of the photo. A white woman bends over to talk to a young black girl with fluffy brown hair pulled back out of her face. The young girl wears a pretty little blue dress with a white collar. Her face shows sadness and dissatisfaction. The girls name is Hushpuppy. When she’s home, you can tell she’s a free-spirited girl. She wears her hair out in a fro, a shirt, pants, and boots. She’s a wild little girl, whose spirit is being suppressed at the hands of outsiders. People claiming that they know what’s best for her and her people by inserting themselves in the lives of those they don’t quite understand.

Of the various struggles refugees face during times of war and migrating to places of refuge, one big loss they experience is the feeling of home. They have had their home(s) torn away from them, whether that means their culture, their people, places, and or objects. Broken countries, homelands that no longer serve as a home but as a battlefield. “Sometimes you can break something so bad that it can’t be put back together,”(Beasts of the Southern Wild). Losing home is a fight against one’s identity.

In the film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, the viewer watches as Hushpuppy and her father fight for their home, the Bathtub. The Bathtub is a swampy part of New Orleans that gets the worst hits of storms due to it being below sea level. In the film, they go through some similar struggles that refugees go through. As a large storm was getting ready to sweep over New Orleans, the people of the Bathtub had to choose whether or not they were going to evacuate or stay in the attempt to rebuild after the storm hit. Most of the people leave, but Hushpuppy, her dad, and a few others stayed to fight.

As home is often associated with a house, the truth is, the two are not always interchangeable as some people’s houses are nests of negativity. Places they may be seeking asylum from. When addressing home, it is meant as the attachment to these things. These places, people, objects, and ideas. It is when they give off a feeling of love, nostalgia, and comfortability, can one consider something a home. Home is often also a thing through which ones culture thrives.

It can be extremely hard to keep your culture and cultural practices pristine when you migrate to somewhere with different cultures. You can easily lose your cultural identity if you are trying to escape from a reality, which is the case for many refugees seeking asylum from dangerous conditions. In Beasts of the Southern Wild, Hushpuppy says, “MY daddy says if he gets too sick to drink beer and catch catfish, I should stick him on a boat and set him on fire so they don’t plug him into the wall.” This quote illuminates the will of her father and her people that most others may not be able to relate to. In the film, they fought for their home. Their culture and their people. Hushpuppy’s father tells her what he wants done to him before others who don’t understand what kind of life they lead, to get their hands on him. This was his way of keeping his culture in the midst of devastation.

Similar to Beasts of the Southern Wild, refugees experience rips in their homeland. Whether it be at the hands of their own governments ill governing and enforcement/infliction of their rules and ideals, natural disaster, etc… Refugees must choose in what way they will cope with the present conditions. Will they attempt to flee? Seeking sanctuary in other places, hoping to find a new life, a new home, apart from their poisoned country. Or, will they fight? Putting themselves on the front line, using their voices and their bodies to fight back.

Once in a new place, in most cases of refugees who are undocumented, they are treated as illegal entities. Not human beings, fleeing from death, looking for a life beyond the restrictions of their country. As they move away from their country, they move away from the only home(s) they knew. In their country, they had a life and in their life, they had a home(s). The truth of the matter for most refugees is that they are not always welcomed into countries like America, where you are stripped of your title as human and put into a box labeled with misconceptions and stereotypes. Leading to an ongoing difficult life-path.

As we go through life, we come across countless homes. Extensions of ourselves. A home is a beautiful thing through which life can thrive. We must cherish our home(s) and we must ensure that we allow for others to do the same.

Work Cited:

Zeitlin, Ben, director. Beasts of the Southern Wild. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2012.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild (Blu-Ray).” DVD Talk, www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/58625/beasts-of-the-southern-wild/.

The dangers and misfortunes of Migrants’ journeys and the untold stories of their lives are often misunderstood. Throughout this year, I have researched in dept into the lives of refugees from different countries. I also was able to see the perspectives of how different countries treat these people. In addition, I witnessed one on one conversations with a refugee and people vacationing to the Greek islands which was very enlighting. Enrique decided to come to America to find his mother, just like a lot of refugee stories. For many years Enrique’s mother had been in America trying to make enough money to bring Enrique and his sister to join her. It seems like through all of the research we have done throughout the year that many other refugees stories have many similarities. “For Enrique, Maria Isabel isn’t just a way to stem the loneliness he felt since his mother left him” (Pg 33). I think this was a good example of why it is so important for humans to have connections to other humans. Enrique was really missing his mother when he met Maria Isabel. I also think that it’s important to note why Enrique’s mothers Laudes came to America in the first place. The book explaines that many refugees leave because “ They live on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa , Honduras. She can barely afford food for him and his sister, Belky, who is seven.”(Pg 4). The way Enriques lives in very rough and it’s hard for his mother. There are a lot of other people in the same situation where they are from and in some cases some are in worse situations.
Virtually unnoticed, Enrique will become one of an estimated 48,000 children who enter the United States through Central America and Mexico each year, illegally and without either of their parents. This statistics bewilders me because they are kids my age taking extremely dangerous train rides that a large percentage of people get robbed, beaten or even raped. The experience of immigrants without US approved documentation is difficult. People who do not understand the immigrant experience often believe that it is an easy decision to make and an easy process to go through. The idea that people who do not go through the State Department for official citizenship are taking the easy way out is ignorance. As was highlighted in Exit West, there is a lot of stigma relating to how people look at you . People risk their lives and leave everything they knew behind in the hopes of finding better opportunities. The official process of getting citizenship can take years, some cannot afford years and need to make immediate changes. The hope in the end is that it will have all been worth it, but it is in no way the easy way out. A major theme that is explored in Enrique’s Journey is the youth experience. Language around immigration is harsh in the US. The things that people say against immigration, advocate for it the name of national security are inhumane, and they do not realize that they are often talking about children. While adults do not deserve to be treated harshly, the issue is made particularly important because young adults and children make up a large portion of those who migrate. Rural and blue collar Americans are often concerned that those who emigrate are “stealing jobs”, while that argument is still xenophobic, perhaps it they understood the amount of children who are seeking education opinios would be less cruel. There are no guarantees for immigrants and refugees. They have to find ways to survive in countries that are often unwelcoming, “Refugees had occupied many of the open places in the city , pitching tents in the greenbelt between roads, erecting lean-tons next to the boundary wall of houses sleeping on rough sidewalks and in the margins of the streets” Pg73 (Mahsin Hamid). Nothing about the experience is easy. People also misunderstand what refugees go through emotionally as well. It is emotionally difficult to leave behind their culture and adapt to a new culture. Often times the new culture has a different language which is one huge barrier.“ I understood a mother gave birth alone in a hospital and didn’t even know the language with no one of her people there to wish well to the child in Arabic.”Joanna Kakissis ( Last Resort). In this example, you can see that the mother is unable to participate in a tradition that is part of her culture, because she is caught up in a language barrier. ` I’ve realized that I’ve only scratched the surface of what refugees go through. I’ve tried to highlight that it’s not an easy process and how much more work that the process of becoming a citizen entails. People need to understand what these people go through because maybe instead of refugees being welcomed by hand cuffs we can welcome them with open arms.

Author Note: Dear Reader. I’d like you to read my essay and get comfortable with my words. I want you to place yourself in the text and feel my words.

Dear Someone,

This is not easy for me, an immigrant turned American, to write. Consider this a one-sided and inconsequential letter of a young, lost girl’s words. What is the true definition of home? Can another environment ever replace home? You’re probably wondering why I wrote this. Here’s why. My country, Iran is what I call home sweet home, or at least used to. I couldn’t see myself referring to America as my home. Home is home, and everything else is not-home. That’s the way the world is constructed. The pain I experienced at a young age took a huge toll on me and the person that I am today.

Do you know how it feels to feel lost within yourself? You’ll get used to waking up every day to the new scene that you swear could never get old. You’ll meet new kids, people who are completely different from the ones who lived in your old neighborhood. Nobody will judge you nor criticize you and the most they’d do is stare but who cares? you’d already be used to it. You’ll be so stuck in your current fairytale, so deep into the illusion, that you’d believe that this is the best decision your parents have made in all your years of living. Then days would go by, the trees would start to shed leaves, the news would talk about the rise in killings, the streets would be emptier and so is the hole in your heart because you realized that the change your parents made meant you had to leave behind the family that mattered most to you and you believe so much that you were progressing and growing because you no longer had to sleep with the fear of waking up to bad news, that your cousin didn’t make it back or your papa was brutally murdered in his home and now you’re scared. You’re all alone when you realized that the whole entire world is crazy and rather separating yourself from the people who could protect you the most, you needed to be there with them. Do you know how it feels? Home is the only illusion that makes sense, not the country that you thought moving to would diminish the fear in your heart.

In our defense, we were never looking for a new home, rather a new beginning. We never had intentions of America being our new home, at least not me. Iran would always be home to me. Wasn’t that the true definition of home? Not where you’re from, but where you are wanted. Home is the only place where your fears and doubts are cast aside but my home is fragmented, and although we all know it’s true, I’ll still lose the argument. Even if the evolutionary path of knowledge and wisdom is presented in my evidence. So I will hold my silence and create my own will to survive. And the divide will occur and I’ll still be the outsider.

Definition of home? Home could be a townhouse or it could be a small fire and the light it cast on a few familiar faces. Definition of home? Be it ever so humble, it is more than just a place. But whatever home is… its a way of organizing space in our minds. The reality is, home is where you make it and You will inevitably return to your original home at the end of such a journey.

Introduction -

         The goal of my paper was to exemplify the constant pressure on immigrants to assimilate. I hope to move the readers of my paper and encourage them to be more conscious not to put pressure on immigrants.  When reading my paper one will realize the sacrifices one has to make both when assimilating or choosing not to do so. 

Essay -

         A young brown-skinned Native American man sits with his long sleek black hair streaming over his shoulders. He has quarter-sized gold hoops in his ears and various necklaces decorating his neck. He is covered with a short fur jacket and a white undershirt. The same man later poses, his hair cut short, with a part on the right side, brushed to the left. His neck and ears are free of jewelry. This time he wears a dress jacket, collared shirt, and tie. Although he did not come to the United States from another country, he exhibits what many immigrants must do to reflect mainstream American society, in hopes of maintaining refuge. 

         Cultural assimilation is the process by which someone from a minority group alters their values, beliefs, and behaviors to assume that of a majority group. When immigrants move to different countries the pressure to assimilate is ongoing and if they choose not to alter themselves they may find themselves branded an outsider.  

         The pressure to behave like the majority and follow their beliefs is derived from many different sources that depend on an individual's situation. For adults, it can come from peers in the working world, friends who they see doing so, or the fear of getting deported if they are undocumented. For kids, it often comes from family, peers, school teachers, and many times the media. 

         The media often portrays immigrants and/or the countries they come from in a negative light. Media outlets and journalists do this by focusing on the bad things that have happened in a country and to associate immigrants with the people doing wrong in order to give them a bad reputation. People like President Trump, who are widely covered in the media and therefore play a highly influential role in shaping public opinion, perpetuate negative ideas about immigrant groups. This makes their living in the country even harder since they are not welcomed and people have false preconceived notions about them. Assimilating won’t change ones skin tone; however, it may make it easier for them to live in a new country without attracting as much negative attention. 

         Assimilation often means sacrificing a part of one’s identity. Enuma Okoro, a woman born in Africa and migrating to America stated,  "Coming of age in foreign classrooms, my sister and I slowly shed our native skins. We let teachers mangle our names, then adopted their mispronunciations — introducing ourselves with syllables our own relatives tripped over." (Okoro 1) .  Names are a big part of who people are. Often times, names are unique to someone's culture, region or family. By not correcting her teachers’ mangled pronunciation of her and her sisters’ names, she has allowed her identity to be trampled for the convenience of another, but doing so also lightens the pressure. When she speaks of “shedding our native skin,” she is exemplifying the assimilation process. In her writing, she explains that when she first got to America from Africa she had no good thoughts about her old country.  Many immigrants experience this when trying to disassociate themselves from their past. To be someone else you must also forget who you were. She went on to say that later when she went back to visit, she got in touch with her roots, discovered many things she liked and decided to move back. 

People who choose not to assimilate either find a community where they can avoid it or live a life with the ongoing pressure of harassment. On the other hand, culturally assimilating does not ensure immunity from harassment.

         Once assimilated, one might feel as foreign to their own past and culture as they did when first coming to a new country. In We Need New Names a girl traveled from Africa to America. In Zimbabwe, she peed in the bushes, ate with her hands, played with her friends all day not attending school and spent the majority of her time outside. In America she pees in the toilet, often uses utensils, and spends her time inside and on the internet or talking to friends. In the beginning, she hated America and wanted to go back, but later she stated, “One part is yearning for my friends; the other doesn't know how to connect with them anymore, as if they are people I've never met”(212). This shows how foreign the place and people she once associated with home are. Many immigrants still yearn for their old country, but understand that it was best for them to leave considering the conditions there. The internal conflict she faces of yearning for her Zimbabwe and simultaneously wanting to fit in, in her new country makes this lack of connection hard to repair.

         How do immigrants feel about assimilation? Assimilation can involve changing religion. Adopting a different language, the slang that may come with that and even the accent.  It can also mean breaking one's own traditions and ideals to adopt new ones. Assimilation applies a lot of pressure on immigrants. For example, in We Need New Names, Darling’s Aunt Faustilina in America would practice speaking English in a mirror after she messed up a conversation in English until she spoke precisely and articulately. Aunt Faustalina, is her role model, and from her, Darling learned both what to do and what not to do. For immigrants, learning what to do and what not to do is a continual struggle that may never result in the acceptance they seek while it compels them to sacrifice parts of their identity to do so.

Citations -

Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names. Vintage Books, 2014.

Okoro, Enuma. “A Return to Nigeria.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2014, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/a-return-to-nigeria/?hp&rref=opinion.

“A Tour of 5 Refugee Camps.” This American Life, www.thisamericanlife.org/greece/.

“Sea Prayer .” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKBNEEY-c3s.

“Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee.” This American Life, 19 Apr. 2019, www.thisamericanlife.org/593/dont-have-to-live-like-a-refugee.

   Americans often misunderstand the lives of refugees because of widespread misconceptions. Refugees entire lives are put on hold and are often put in danger, many even perish along the way. Many aspects of immigration are often overlooked and brushed under the carpet. Refugees do not have the option to leave their homeland and lose more than just their house in search of a better life.
   The U.S government and media often say that immigrants come into our country and steal taxpayer’s jobs. What isn’t publicized is the struggles immigrants and refugees face to make it to America or a safer place to restart their lives. There are many dangers that come with migrating and seeking refuge. An example of this is seen in the article Desperate Crossing by Scott Anderson, it tells the story of 733 refugees traveling from Eritrea to Sicily. The article includes photographs of the cramped boat, the hundreds of refugees had nothing but the clothes on their backs, which was the only thing between them and the hot summer sun. Most of the children on the boat did not know how to swim and there were no lifejackets onboard the boat. The migrants paid upwards of $1,500 for what they thought was a 6-8 hour journey, realistically though, it would take 6-8 days. Before the boat reached the island of Sicily the boat capsized, only 28 refugees survived. Sadly events like this are common, thousands of refugees die in transport to a new home some contracting life-threatening diseases or starving. Yet these are not the things that we are frequently made aware of. Instead, we are told that refugees do nothing but steal taxpayers’ jobs and create havoc within the country. If the media would allow citizens to see the struggles refugees and immigrants face there would be a better understanding of their intentions. To live a healthier and happier life in a safer environment.  
When immigrants uproot their families and lives they lose more than their home, they lose irreplaceable aspects of their life. Refugees’ homeland is somewhere they do not need to explain their identity or subside their culture, but when they are forced to leave their home they also lose their identity. This is especially clear when moving to the United States, many immigrants have to explain themselves and their identity in hopes of being accepted. In the novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri she touches on the losses that come with immigrating. On page 56 Lahiri writes ¨They’ve learned their lesson after Gongol. They´ve learned that schools in America will ignore parents’ instructions and register a child under his pet name. The only way to avoid such confusion, they have concluded, is to do away with the pet name altogether, as many of their Bengali friends have done.¨ This quote represents how it is difficult to stay true to your culture when the people around you don understand its importance. Rather immigrants give up the fight to show their culture and identity, afraid of disrespect from others. United States citizens are predisposed to assumptions for Muslims, giving people the idea that they are all terrorists. Sadly people do not take the time to understand people’s differences, instead, they try to conform them to their standards. Another example of how immigration causes many people to lose their culture and identity is seen in the article A Return to Nigeria. Enuma Okoro writes of the differences immigrants feel when visiting their homeland, “Each time I boarded the plane to return to the States it was with a surprising hint of sadness. I became increasingly uncertain about what I was really going back to. Sure, there was a reliable infrastructure of basic necessities like electricity and medical care. Yet, back in Nigeria, I had the irreplaceable experience of feeling connected to an untapped part of myself. I was gaining insight into my ancestral and communal identity as a Nigerian, as an Igbo woman.” This quote shows how refugees lose their sense of culture and their identity when moving to a better living environment. This quote from the article shows how at some point refugees would rather sacrifice their living environment to live somewhere they don’t need to explain their identity and culture. Many people do not acknowledge the sacrifices refugees make to have a better life in a safer environment. 
Seeking refuge has lifelong damaging effects on immigrants. Throughout the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, the viewer realizes what being an outsider can do to a person. Immigrants and refugees often feel like outsiders in their own homes. They are treated differently even though we are all people, that cannot seem to accept each other’s differences. At the beginning of the film the protagonist, Hushpuppy narrates a conversation between her and her father as he explains life outside the “bathtub”. “ Ain't that ugly over there? We got the prettiest place on earth. Daddy says, up above the levee… on the dry side, they're afraid of the water… like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't going nowhere.” This scene in the movie stuck with me as Hushpuppy is very young and is already being taught the ways in which the world discriminates against those who stray from the streamline. Those living in the bathtub make up a community of understanding individuals who come together and celebrate their differences. People living on the other side of the levee treat people of the bathtub as outsiders. Similarly, many immigrants are treated as outsiders, they have to work harder to be seen and treated as equals. Having to prove and explain themselves to be accepted causes emotional damage, feeling inadequate for being themselves. Ultimately immigrants tell their stories, passing them down from generation to generation. Another scene from Beasts of the Southern Wild that represents the emotional damage immigrants deal is when Hushpuppy says ̈If Daddy kill me I ain't gonna be forgotten, I ́m recording my story for scientists of the future.¨ Immigrants and refugees tell their stories so that their struggle is never forgotten. Immigrants and refugees lose their culture and identity when searching for the start of a better life. Sadly although they escape the struggles in their homeland they are dealt a whole new stack of difficulties that ultimately pose lifelong emotional damage. 
   In today’s society, immigrants and refugees are misunderstood and placed under a category of unworthy. They are treated with disrespect for being different when in reality every single person is unique and different and deserves an opportunity for a better life. Americans often misunderstand the lives of refugees because of widespread misconceptions. The misconception that refugees do nothing more than steal taxpayers’ jobs and money hides their struggles. That immigrants’ entire lives are put on hold, they ́re put in danger, and they ́re forced to seek refuge. The sooner this misconception is forgotten the sooner everyone can accept each other differences and respect each other enough to give others the opportunity for a better life.

Ethan Friedman English III Mr. Block January 2020

Authors’ Note:

In this essay, I wanted to connect my life and my nostalgia linked to my home with the experiences of people around the world. I wanted to stress how lucky I am to be able to call a place home and be able to experience my 17 years of life there. There are many people in the world who are forced out of their homes, and it’s important for me to highlight the issues in the world when I have the opportunity.

                                 Home Base

As he heard the bells from the departing train, he leaps off of his make-shift cot and scrambled toward the tracks. His limbs clothed in the murky mud from the swamp-like ditch he and his peers had slept in to stay warm. He got to a full sprint as he lept at the perfect time to make it in-between the ultimate and penultimate cars. He ascended the rusty ladder and sat down with his legs crossed facing the newly formed home behind him. That is where the signature picture was taken. He leaves a world of poverty and danger and heads for one with opportunity. I do not live in that same world. My world gives me more opportunities. My world gives me an education. My world provides me with friends of all different kinds. My world even lets me say and do whatever I want. There is a reason that I love my home. Philadelphia reminds me to be strong, to be caring, to be confident, and to bleed green. There will never be another home this meaning fun to me. I do not have to worry about where I am going to sleep, what I am going to eat. I have grown up to understand that there are people on the same planet that I live in who do not have those same privileges.

Some are forced to make a large magnitude of changes in their life to be able to have what I have by default. A Nigerian girl, who’s family moved to New York City to raise her and her sister, did not have the same life. Their names were not pronounced right, they were judged based on their skin, and nobody understood their language. Over time, after her father died, she started to go back to Nigeria and write about her community there. She slowly started to feel like she missed her real home. Just like I feel, you can never replace your true home. She said, “Each time I boarded the plane to return to the states it was with a surprising hint of sadness” (A Return to Nigeria). The problem is, we do not always realize that not everybody has the ability to go back to their home. Sometimes, they are forced out forever. Those are the people that we need to help.

In America, we should be willing to assist refugees. During our schooling and through the news, we learn all about the struggles the migrants and refugees have to endure just to have an opportunity to work and survive. America is most certainly not full. We should be looking for people around the world who need an opportunity. Who cares who is making your clothes? Who cares who builds your cars? Who cares about who where people are from? People are people. As long as they are not causing a problem and are not affecting your life, why does it matter? At the end of the, you never know what could happen to you. In each others’ shoes, you would beg for America to take you in and save your life. We need to understand the damage we are doing by denying immigrants. A significant majority of immigrants want to come to America to work just like everyone else. They want to go to school. They want to be happy. They do not want to hurt anybody.

There are refugees from everywhere on the planet. Not everyone can go home. We think that all of them come to our countries successfully and the struggle is whether or not we want them. The reality is what Enrique said, “Every day, hundreds of families are not as lucky. They are again being torn apart”, in Enqirue’s Journey. There are many groups who become stranded with nowhere to go. We need to look at this issue from other perspectives to understand that home is not guaranteed to everyone. What we take for granted is an incredible privilege.

Works Cited: Nazario, Sonia. Enriques Journey. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014.

Okoro, Enuma. “A Return to Nigeria.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2014, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/a-return-to-nigeria/?hp&rref=opinion.