Our Stories

Teo was born in Barcelona Spain and attended an international American school in the city until the age of ten. He was taught English, as well as Spanish and German and Catalan at a young age. He was exposed to many different cultures during his time at the international school and learned with many people who were immigrants to Spain. He lived at an old family home just outside of the City on the coast with his family and grandparents.  When he was ten he moved to England for his dad’s work, leaving behind his life in Spain to experience an entirely different world. While Teo had had experience with travel around Europe before, he had never moved to an entirely new country. In England, he attended another international school where he was not viewed as an outsider, simply a member of the greater community. Being at an international school meant that Teo was again exposed to many different cultures in a condensed area. Quite the melting pot!

When Teo turned eleven his dad was given the opportunity from an old college friend to move to the United States and work there. His dad had met the friend when he attended Standford University in the United States. Once again Teo moved to an un-familiar place and was forced to remake friends and get to know a new culture. He began 6^th grade the first year he moved to the US. at Cary Academy. However, he had to start a little later into the school year because of the visa issues he had to work through to legally attend an American school. Cary Academy was another new experience for Teo, and later his brother as it lacks the amount of diversity his previous schools have and has a much narrower student body. Family has always played a big role in Teo’s life. Being the most constant community, he has had, his brother, mother and father have always stayed with him throughout the various places he has lived. I chose this photo of Teo and his family because I wanted a photo that showed them all together, throughout the various places the Feliu’s lived they always had each other and that was something I really wanted to capture.

Cheryl Medford was born in 1964 in Barbados. She grew up knowing beaches, mangos, and a salty spray breeze. She was born to mother, Mary and father, Bernard. She grew up with an older sister and a younger brother and sister. It was a struggle for them to get by. Mary was a stay at home mom and Bernard was a minister. They may not have had money, but they had abundant love. She remembers, her family Christmas’ vividly. It was a special time. She would buy a pack of gum and split up the pieces evenly among her siblings. The gift was not what mattered to them. It was the time they spent just enjoying each other’s presence. One year her father got a job offer to minister in America. He quickly took the job and said he would raise enough money to fly the family to America. Three years later, when she was 5, it finally happened. They arrived in New York. She remembers how scary it was at her age to let go of Barbados and embrace this new unfamiliar place. They then moved into the new house Bernard was living in and she remembers, a lady came to the door. She was pregnant. It was Bernard’s baby. Her mother quickly threw the lady out of the house, took the children, and left Bernard. Cheryl was so hurt and confused. She described the feeling of a huge weight on her chest. She wondered how her father could do something like this if he loves them? It was hard on her mother after that. They were moving from house to house, staying with whoever would take them. From then on, Cheryl was devoted to her studies, so that later she’d be able to take care of her mother. She applied to only one college and got a full ride to RIT. There she met the love of her life. He was everything her father was not. Where she was weak he was strong. Little did she know he was from her tiny island, that his father also got a job as a minister in America, that his father passed and he was also raised by a single mother, and that she was everything he needed in his life. They shared one past, one pain, and now one destiny. Maybe it was true. Everything is better in America.

My father came to America for better medical training. He married to an American citizen. He wanted to go back to India to serve the community by being a doctor and he wanted to give thanks to the country because they gave him free education. Some of the challenges he faced when he came to America was discrimination. For example, it was hard for him to find his first choice for his medical specialty but had to compromise despite adequate credentials. He wasn’t given the opportunities initially. But, after a little while they started to come. He couldn’t get a medical career in the field he was interested in, even though he had good credentials. A few things he remembers about America when he first came here were the national highways, universities, and shopping malls. He was also surprised that the people here have respect for rules. In his mother country, they never really had any grand building that had information about whatever you wanted to know. He didn’t find any differences between his mother country and America. He grew up in India and came here to become a doctor. He is fond of both countries. India gave him a childhood and education. The US gave him opportunities to become a better doctor and to start a new life here leaving everything behind.

The immigration process wasn’t that much of a difficulty because his wife is an American citizen. But the geopolitical situation today is a total different picture. Raging wars around the world, immigrants seeking asylum has skyrocketed. He wouldn’t always recommend coming to this country because it was a great sacrifice that was needed to be made. One would lose his culture, family, traditions. But, this country is also known as the land of opportunities. The value of immigrants in America is big. America is built on immigrants over centuries. Immigrants come with great drive, new ideas, and tend to be more successful then naturally born American citizen in a study by CATO Institute. Many of the entrepreneur’s in Silicon Valley and research students are immigrants from around the world. They create value to the society.

Zhengmei Bai was 21 when she immigrated from Beijing, China to America in the 1990s. Back in China, she was in her third year of film school studying sound recording. She then decided to follow the trend of immigrating to America for a better life. Even though it was a big trend, it didn’t always mean it was an easy thing to do. It was a big move to walk away from the comforts of home and her family and friends. However, her mother supported her completely and provided all of the resources that she was able to for her daughter to come have a better education and build a better life in America.

Before she could come to America, she had to go through the tough process of obtaining a visa to America, which was required at the time. She applied to NC State University and after being accepted as a student, was she then eligible to obtain a visa. When she arrived in America, she was first hit with the challenge of a completely new language environment as well as culture. She had studied English for six years, but she felt that it wasn’t sufficient enough for moving to America. She didn’t have any family in America, but had some friends from North Carolina, which is why she applied to NC State. While she was gratefully provided with resources from her mother, she still had to work in restaurants and libraries to be able to support herself. Another challenge she faced was having to study in school, but also having to continuously learn about the country and culture. She also described how some people held certain prejudices against immigrants like herself. Even though she didn’t seem to experience as much in the school environment, she noticed how people with those prejudices were ignorant because of a lack of understanding and a lack of openness to learn about people from different cultures and countries. However, she learned to focus on her major goals and the whole reason she was here, always keeping a good attitude and not worrying about what other people think. After endless hard work, she has had a position as a project manager at GSK for 20 years and has a loving family with two children. She believes that immigrating to America was the greatest decision she made for the better of herself and her family.

The person I interviewed, Naren Chawla, was born in Shikarpur, India, which became a part of Pakistan in 1949. He came to the United States in 1968 on a one year scholarship Visa, but soon realized that he wanted to remain in the United States. It was difficult for him to tell his parents that he wasn’t going to come back to them, as their family was very close knit. In Indian culture, families are very close and he would have been expected to remain close to them and let them help him raise a family, likely even living in the same house as them. The idea of starting a life alone in America was somewhat radical to present to his parents. Naren found it very exciting to experience life in a much freer society than the one he had grown up in. He shared an apartment with 3 other immigrants, and they loved being introduced to American culture, especially the music of the ‘70s. Naren was a chemical engineer, although he is retired now. After his initial retirement, he was bored, so he used his skill in mental math to find a second career as a mortgage broker to a large Indian community in New Jersey. He found this career choice to be more interesting than his first. Naren has enjoyed living in the United States, and he is glad of the decision he made to stay here.

Juan Carlos was lives a happy and successful life in the United States, but it wasn’t always this way. He immigrated to the United States in 2003 along with his wife and two children. They were all originally from Columbia, a country he loves very dearly, but left for two reasons. First, his wife heard stories of how beautiful America is from her sister who had lived there for 10 years prior to their immigration. This was enough motivation for his wife, and out of true love Juan wanted her to pursue this dream. He also had another compelling reason to immigrate: safety.

1989 was the height of Gorilla power around Columbia, and the government responded. A mandatory draft was installed into Columbia, which essentially demanded one in every three hundred Columbia men fit for service would be drafted into the army. To carry out the order, each group of three hundred men were put into one room to choose golf balls out of a box. The first man went- white ball. The Second man went- white ball. The third man went- white ball. Juan Carlos was the sixth man and reached into the box only to pull a red golf ball.

It was his third year of service when he took part in a battle on the border of Columbia and Venezuela fighting off gorillas.  An hour into the operation however, he took a bullet wound to the torso, but stilled marched on. It was only after the operation he was sent to the hospital. Two months later he was relieved from the army and took a successful job working for the Government’s Department of Water. He soon left that success to travel to New York just a few years later. In truth, he says, he moved to America all for his wife. When he first arrived he was able to find some odd jobs, but nothing stable. He recalls life in New York not to be very hard after he found his job, but before that he was forced to rent a room at a motel with the extra cash he had brought with him from his past life in Columbia. He recalled one week of having to live off of just bread, crackers, and Campbell soup. It was tough, he said, but if anything it brought him and his family closer than ever. His main obstacle, in his eyes, was his lack of English speaking abilities. He remedied this by committing to community college courses. He then came to work for a private zoo, his first stable job in America. Sixth months later, however, another drastic change was to come. His wife found a successful job in North Carolina, so for the second time his family all took up their bags and migrated once more. He secured a job as a maintenance worker for a real estate company. Through ten years of hard work and dedication, he is now the head of maintenance for the entire company. Ultimately, he is extremely happy.

When I was five, my family and I moved from Denmark to North Carolina because of a job offer my dad got. Although I was only five I remember vividly the fear of leaving my friends and family behind and going someplace new. We packed up the house and sent some of our belongings on a container ship across the Atlantic. We booked a flight and off we went. I left all I knew behind when I walked onto the plane. I had a new house, no friends, and couldn’t communicate with others. I was completely dependent on my parents, glued to their side. We made the move during summer so we would have time to adjust to the new country before school started.

When the summer ended and school started I was alone in all my classes and I had no sense of what was going on around me. However, with the help of my teachers, parents, and English classes I could read, write, and speak as well as other kids my age by the end of the year. Things became easier as the days went on. Overall, I am thankful for the opportunity my parents gave me for coming to America. I have gotten the chance to learn in a new environment and fully understand how two cultures can be so different yet similar at the same time. Even if it took a bit of time to adjust, I now call America my home too.

What I miss most about living in Denmark is being able to see my family on the weekends or out of the blue inviting them over for a dinner. I had to leave many things behind: especially the Danish culture, my old friends, and school. Over the years, my friends and I lost touch and I felt Denmark slipping away from me. For this reason, it is imperative for me to travel back and visit my family and the different culture of Denmark so I will never forget my roots.