It was 2013, I was 13 years old and my family and I had moved from Hong Kong to Florida. We lived in Hong Kong for almost five years and moving to the United States was a great change for all of us. The moving process to different countries had been very familiar to me as I had done it multiple times over the years; nevertheless, coming to the U.S was the one of most difficult moves of all. Due to a change in my father’s career path, his job lead us all the way to The United States. We were well unaware of what was to come. My personal experience was a little frightening and intimidating due to my lack of American knowledge.
I had been learning English in Hong Kong for quite some time, but speaking it in America was drastically different to what I was used to. I had to pick up the new dialect very quickly which took lots of time and effort. The food, culture, and laws were also all brand new to me. I was not familiar with the school system, let alone the social expectations in America. Having to pick up and learn these new cultural differences, expectations, laws and systems was very challenging. Since I went straight into private school, the workload I had received was incomparable to what I had in Hong Kong. While living in Asia, I played cricket and rugby. When I moved to the U.S, I could not continue playing these sports as they simply do not hold an importance here. These examples are just a few of hundreds of cases. Although my experience isn’t as overwhelming as other stories due to support both emotionally and financially, it was still, however, one of the toughest challenges of my life. Everything that I was used to in Hong Kong was either nonexistent or completely different in the United States. With lots of hard work and dedication, it took me around two years to adapt, but still to this day there are certain things that I just don’t understand.
My life right now is very good and I cannot complain. Even though I moved to North Carolina less than two years ago, I have finally managed to fit in and make lots of friends. Having experienced different cultures my entire life has shaped me as the person I am today.
