My early life
Essay 1
My early life entailed being a refugee in the Nepal Refugee camps. We (I and my family) never settled in one location, moving from one Bhutanese refugee camp to the other. Among these refugee camps, the most common included the Beldangi refugee camps, the Goldhap refugee camps, and the Khudunabari refugee camps. It is across these three camps that I spent my early childhood. Since we were continually relocating from one base to the next, I had no close friends and looked upon my family for everything, including love, support, and friendship through those hard times when we would sleep hungry or out in the cold. During such times, the only thing that kept us going was prayer and the hope for brighter and better days. My parents were always optimistic about a future where my siblings and I would have many friends, good education, and a family home.
Nepal, a nation located in the South of Asia, is a third world country in terms of its GDP. Therefore, things like education are not affordable to every family as most of the nation’s citizens live below the dollar a day. Adding to the fact that we were living in a refugee camp inside Nepal, we had difficulties accessing proper healthcare, quality education, and opportunities. Refugees in Nepal did not have the right to either work or possess the land. This meant that most families, including ours, relied on food aid from the UN. What was perhaps the turning point in my life was when my sibling almost died one day due to a lack of proper healthcare. From that point onwards, my parents were focused on how we could get out of the refugee camps and acquire a good living. So, when the opportunity came in the form of the “refugee resettlement initiative,” my parents jumped at the chance and ‘luckily’ enough, were among the families chosen to be relocated to the United States.
The United States offered my family both legal and actual protection, which entailed both socioeconomic and civil rights. However, settling in a new nation was not without obstacles. As an immigrant family, my parents had sacrificed and left everything behind, including their culture, to come to the ‘land of opportunities’ so that we as their children could acquire a better life and education. This was not an easy choice since we had left our native land to come to another, which we understood nothing about. The first few months were the hardest. We had to fit into the American culture and the English language. The change in the food diet also took a toll on us, but we got through it with the strength and bond of the family. My father got a job that offered just enough pay to take care of the family, and together we struggled through both the rough and manageable times of embracing a new way of life.
In my education, the journey through high school was not entirely a “smooth ride.” Here I was in a whole new world trying to fit in with my school mates with my pidgin English and lack of a proper educational background. This meant that both my education and social life were in serious jeopardy. Because I tried so hard to fit in and did not, I was often a target for bullying in school with the most student’s giving me nicknames such as “weirdo” and “geeky.” It, therefore, wasn’t easy to overcome such obstacles. And I remember at one time I almost felt like completely giving up with school. However, as education is the key to unlocking many doors, I emphasized it, striving each day with extra hours to understand concepts and slowly but surely, I gained ground on both education and the English language. I am now proud to say that I am looking forward to my next chapter at the University.