My parents arrived in America on August 23, 1997, with only $5000. They came on student visas (F1 and F2). My dad received a $1200/month scholarship from MIT after graduating from Qinghua University, one of the best colleges in China, to pursue a master’s degree in computer science.
After arriving, it became obvious that there would be many struggles. When my dad started attending MIT, he had a hard time understanding the professor or working with other students although he had been taking English for 15 years in China. During that time, my mom started applying for college and got into Northeastern University, but my parents didn’t have enough money to pay tuition. They also couldn’t afford a car, so they had to rely on public transportation to get places.
They stayed in Boston (MIT) for 2 years and then traveled to Ithaca, New York, where my dad found a job at Autodesk. My mom then applied for college again while my dad worked to keep up with the tuition costs. She decided to attend Syracuse. My dad got an H-1B visa and my mom had an F1.
After my dad’s project at Autodesk got cancelled, he needed a job since his whole team got laid off. He had to get a job within a year, or else his visa would be cancelled. Of course, he was panicking and frantic to find another job. Luckily, one of his friends who had recently moved to North Carolina called my dad and told him they had multiple job openings at a company called Cisco. It was then my parents decided to move to Cary.
They lived in an apartment for a little while and moved to a house in 2001. Shortly after, I was born in 2002, and my brother in 2007. We have lived in the same house for 16 years and recently welcomed another member to our family – our husky named Skylar. My mom received her US citizenship in 2005, and my dad received his on January 3, 2017. America is full of opportunities and my parents were fortunate enough to catch the wave of technology and get good paying jobs easily. They are beyond happy to be able to live and enjoy life in the US. When asked if he called America home, my dad simply replied with, “Yes.”
