Amalia Vega
Professor N. Scuri
ENG 010-526
October 28, 2013
Struggles and a goal
To get to the crux of my life I am in now had to pass important reasons. You may wonder what I have had to do to get to this point of my life. Before decided to return to school, I faced many struggles throughout my life. For example, me moving to the United States, poor working conditions and compromising my family because of work has delayed me in reaching my goals.
When I came to the United States ten years ago, I came with the dream to work and being able to progress. I came here in December, alone; I left my family and my country, Uruguay. I decided to move because in my country there was a big economic crisis. Here, in the United States, I had family living in Massachusetts. I called them to see how their situation in America was, and the possibilities of moving in with them. They told me that the situation was not that hard and I could find a job. I was enthusiastic about came to the United State. I have already heard stories about people who came here before and they were able to find a job, and send some money to their families in Uruguay, so I decided to try my luck too.
When I came here I did not come with a lot of money, so I was eager to work. The town I stayed in Massachusetts was called Leominster. Leominster was famous for having many plastic factories. I knew some people that worked there, so they put me in contact with the boss and I started working. On the first day of my job, the person in charge gave me an orientation and left. I had understood nothing of what the person said because it was in English, and I did not understand it yet, even though I took three years of English in high school. I felt like the most stupid person in the world because I did not know what to do. I was working in a warehouse where it was always open and trucks always came to put the products in. It was winter and it was freezing in there. The only advantage was that I was working quickly and the movement kept me warm. On top of all of that the other inconvenience was the mobility. Although I did know how to drive, I had no car, so I had to walk and take the bus. The only bad thing about that was that there were five or six feet of snow and it was freezing cold. I felt like my nose, ears, and bones were going to break off.
At the start everything was new, the place, the people, and the job. I wanted to convince myself that it was something temporary and something better was going to come out of it. It was three months that passed when they announced that they did not need the employees that were temporary, and once again, I had no job. I started to look for a job, but I realized that I could not find anything anywhere. A couple of friends talked to me about the opportunity I could have on Long Island and I decided to relocate. We rented a room and shared a car, but again my life was a disaster. I found a job for eight hours a day, from Monday to Friday, in a factory where they made cosmetics. I got paid $5.50 per hour, it was only enough to pay for rent and some food. I have already reached the bottom and it was worst than Uruguay. The worst part was that I was alone. So by recommendation, I found another job at the night for four hours daily in another warehouse where I made pots and things made of ceramic. The pay was also low and the working conditions were deplorable. I still needed money to send to my daughter that stayed in Uruguay with my mom, so I had to find a third job. It was at a restaurant during the weekends. I passed one whole year like that, working twelve hours daily. The only thing that kept me on my feet was my pride; I did not want to return to my country more worn down than before I had left.
In all of my comings and goings from my jobs and my bad experiences I found my husband. My husband was from Peru, so we had different customs and cultures, but we mixed them and merged them together. The only thing that we