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Transformative Experience

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Submitted By volsfan2002
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My Transformative Experience

The year is 1996 and I am a five year old girl in Mexico who cannot speak English and was apart from my mother for what seemed like an eternity. My Mom traveled to the United States to obtain work in the hopes of starting a new life and ultimately getting her children to eventually come as well. The following recounts what I remember from my long, scary, and transformative move from Mexico to the United States. It all started in the early hours one typical beautiful day in Tepic, Nayarit Mexico. I was nervous and excited. For what, I don’t know, but what I do know is that I was going to be reunited with my Mom. It felt like forever since I had seen her, felt her touch, and embraced her hug. I longed for her attention and just to hear her say “Karen?! Desayuno esta listo!” Oh how I missed her breakfast, she didn’t quite make certain things like my grandmother, but I would never tell her that. And hopefully you won’t either. And so my trek began. My sister, her husband, and me all piled in a car with three other people of whom I did not know. We drove to Tijuana and I thought, “that wasn’t so bad” referring to the drive. But that was only the beginning. That night I had one of the most frightening experiences a child would endure. After we got to Tijuana, my sister and brother in law left me at a house with a complete stranger with no clue as to what was happening, where they were going, and when or even if they would return. I cried all night as my worst fears were realized. “They left me here!” I thought. I cried myself to sleep that night and the next day as still I was with this stranger with no word on my family or what was going to happen to me. Finally on the third day, my sister returned with her husband and a car, along with two other people of whom I did not know. But I didn’t care one bit, I hugged my sister like

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