I first came to the US from Haiti when I was 9 years old on June 1st 2016. The school year still had not ended yet back there but it did not matter. I remember sleeping at my aunt’s house the night before because we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. We woke up at around five am and went to the airport which took us nearly two hours, said goodbye to our family and started getting ready to board the plane. This was my first time flying so I was scared and nervous. We got on the plane I think at nine and the flight was probably around 4 hours long and we got to us after twelve. We waited for I think two hours for my dad’s aunt to come to pick us up before we went to her house. We greeted everyone, then we ate, packed our things in the basement and went to take a shower after we spent some time with my dad’s family members and got to know them( I never met any of them before).

I spent the entire summer learning English and American culture to get ready for school. I wasn’t able to go to school on the first day but I don’t remember why I started school on the second week and went to Hackensack Middle School. I didn’t learn the language fast and had a lot of problems. In my first year I made 3 good friends that were all also immigrants, one from Egypt, Amir, the other from Ghana, Cofffe, the third from Russia, Yan, we all had the same ELA class and that’s where my English really developed. I lived in Hackensack for a year before eventually moving to Teaneck and this is where I’ve been ever since.