Dec 10, 1907
Dear Journal, It has been awhile since I have had the time to sit down, and write much with all that has been going on. A little over a month ago now I left my home in Greece in hopes of a better life. So many men came to our village with stories of the riches of America. I decided to make plans to come here to America myself. The idea of spending a 3 year stint in the military which was mandatory for me just did not seem right for me. Life in the old country has been really hard over the years. Mama and Papa have struggled greatly trying to farm the land which largely is just rocky in the mountain sides. I wanted to help them. I wanted to come here in order to make a great deal of money to take home, and purchase our family a better land with a larger home. Being only 16 I had no idea how hard this idea would become. The path here seemed to take forever. The ship I ended up on was so cramped with people. The only fare I could afford purchased me the lowest fare ticket. I spent 2 weeks within the belly of this ship. The narrow packed beds barely gave me a decent sleep. There was so much sickness around me. The smell of throw up seemed to constantly linger in the air. There was little to no food at times on the boat for us in the lower class. I tried to spend as much time as I could on the upper deck, however, the often storms made this impossible much of the time. I was thankful I had remembered to bring my worry beads. Twirling them around my fingers often helped me pass the time away, and brought me stress relief. The ride seemed to go on forever, and I was more than thankful when I saw the first peak of land of what I would learn was Ellis Island. Ellis Island, where do I begin what that dreadful place? Ellis Island consisted of 12 buildings. I did not have to go through all of the buildings. I do know they had a hospital, record keeping, receiving station, and kitchen building. Some of the people who came over with me were not healthy. They received a mark with chalk on their clothing by the doctor. That signaled they did not make it past medical clearance, and would not be allowed into America. After I was cleared by medical I went through a line in which a man asked me where I was from, why I was coming to America, and how much money I had brought with me. (Wallner, 1964). After those of who cleared all of the checkpoints were done a ferry came to take us to a place called New York City. Some of the people of whom I had been on the ship with had family waiting for them at the piers. I had no one. I started to wonder looking at this bustling city in front of me if I had indeed made the right choice. The city was overwhelming at first. I could not wait to find someone with similar features who would be from my own country. I needed someone to talk to you. I had no idea where to find a job, food, or place to sleep at night. I eventually found a man from my old country, and he thankfully gave me good advice on what to do. He told me of the housing in Lower Manhattan. He led me to another group of young men from Greece who had arrived only a week earlier. They allowed me to stay in their apartment in Lower Manhattan. They told me they could help me obtain work as a show shiner. I told them I had contemplated going to find work in the coal mines. I have heard much about how well it pays. They showed me news articles of the coal mining accident in West Virginia just days earlier on Dec 7. Apparently over 300 men died that day in an accident. They explained to me how hard and dangerous that type of work was. I was thankful for their guidance, and decided to stay here in New York City for the time being. I lived in what is called Tenement housing here in America. It is really not the best place to live, but it is cheap. Where I live is a large building with about 20 small apartments in it. Each apartment has 3 rooms. There are currently seven of us in our small apartment. We have one very small bedroom, a kitchen, and a sitting room. We have no bathroom. We have to go out to a community bathroom to relieve ourselves, and wash up. We have no power in our building either. We do the best we can for now, and are just happy to have somewhere to lay our head at night. Most of our days are filled with working as long as possible anyhow. There is a lot of hostility here in America toward us immigrants. From what I have gathered from listening to conversation of my roommates it seems to American’s are not thrilled with the amount of immigrants coming into American right now. There are unions here who look out for the workers, but they do not care of us immigrants either. They believe we hurt American workers, because we will take lower paying jobs. We are not looking to cause any problems here. I know for me I just wish to make enough money to go back to my old country. I am thinking of trying to find work in a factory. I have been checking out the factories here when I have time off from my daily work. From what I have gathered working in the factories is not pleasant work. They smell horribly and are very dirty. Some of the men seem to work very long hours every day, and get very little rest. The conditions they work in seem rather dangerous. There is no job security in the factories. If I was to get sick I would just no longer have a job. They would replace me as soon as possible. Coming to America has so many challenges I suppose I never considered. I am lucky to have found somewhere to live, and decent people from my own country to help me learn about America. I have to believe it is all worth it though. I will work hard here, and save every penny I can. My hope is to return home in a few years, and be able to help my family. I believe my own children I have one day will benefit from my hard work here. With a little luck and hard work I will be able to return home to purchase suitable farming land, and a nice enough house to make it in Greece. This is my dream. I am able to continue every day in this strange country, because I know the rewards will be worth it.

References
Wallner, R. (1964). Greek Immigrants, 1890-1920.
Mankato, MN: Capstone Press