On War & Immigration:

War and immigration are very big issues in the world today and I think people have enough knowledge or experience with these topics. I say this because almost every country has some issue with another country. Additionally, a war is not just one country fighting another country. It can also be between tribes or between races and so on. The question is: do people understand the reason someone might leave their country to live elsewhere other than for work or vacation? War can cause immigration. It causes inflation, disease, and death. According to my understanding, no one would immigrate or leave his or her country, if there was no war or struggle.

I would like to ask people who are anti-immigrant to think about why people come to this country. We should all try to be kind and help each other for the sake of peace. In addition to that, we should also remember that this country was founded by immigrants so we should care about the others.

Autobiographical Writing:

Past

My life before the U.S.A was pretty tough. Every day I woke up with gun shots. I would jump out of bed, scared and looking for bullet holes in my body. Things were going crazy before I was even born. Nobody was getting hurt in the beginning but later on, after I was born, people started killing each other inside the city.

My parents were both running a business in another foreign country. My dad, in particular used to be out always, but my mom couldn’t travel because I was so heavy, she said. Her brothers helped her and started taking care of her business.

Actually, my whole family owned the business but my mom’s parents gave her the most power because they retired and she was the oldest lady in the family. Everyone in the family loved her and she was a really pretty women. She was also smart and someone who loves her family and others, but things don’t happen the way you want them to happen sometimes. For example, there are some people who will get mean with your happy life. They don’t want you to live in happiness with your family and relatives. This doesn’t often happen in other countries, but in my home country of Somalia it happened and it still exists today and now.

As I said before, things may go wrong even while you’re willing them to be right. I am saying this because my family and I lived a good life. We loved our country or our land. We didn’t have the thought of going to another country to live there, but our elders couldn’t cooperate in terms of keeping the country’s head together and maintaining rule of law. What they did was they started cheating and putting people’s heads together by creating tribalism. The civilians started looking at each other: man to man, woman to woman, and kids to kids. Things got worst. There was no where to relax or to stay in the country. Neighbors would come into houses and rape people if they were of a different tribe in that neighborhood. Thus, everyone tried to escape from the bad face happening in his or home to look for a better life. Not everyone had the opportunity to leave from the deserts; it was only those who could afford to get away.

In my family, what happened was that some gunmen come into our building and took our new Toyota car which my grandpa got for my mom’s birthday. They put the gun to my mom’s head and told her to get the keys for the car and she said, “No, I won’t.” The other men started shooting the window of our house. The bullets that they shot went through the TV which was in that room. They were shouting, “ALLAH is great.” There was nobody in the room. We were all outside, crying for our mom. My elder sister pulled the keys out of my mom’s purse and gave them to them just to free my mama. We were all young and my dad was out in a foreign country.

Present

In fact, I am very happy with my present life. I now have no fear and am not scared at all. I am not thinking about what is going to happen to me, if I go out for my soccer practice. I don’t worry if someone is coming to kill my parents. I don’t have all that in my brain or anything else like that.

My heart is very clear. My inside is very clear. War isn’t part of my thinking. I live in a peaceful country. Wherever there is peace,that is my country. That is what I believe. If I was where I was before, I would be dead already but I got the opportunity to come to the United States of America and I am extremely happy to live in the United States because I have a lot of chances to be who I want to be in the future. I am glad with my life now.

Everything is possible in the United States if you are someone who wants to achieve his goals or has a dream. Some people say a dream never comes true, but it does come true if you believe so. I am very happy that I have a free school and I am learning everything I am supposed to like learning on the computers and also on the internet. I feel that my life is progressing like a ship in the ocean’s water.

I am putting forth attention to succeed and achieve my goals in the future. I have the feelings that I can do what I need to do in my life because I have the opportunity and the strength to do it.

Future

In my future, I have the hope that one day I can afford everything that I want for my life. I would like to start a family, finish my education and get a nice professional job that will help me elevate my life and that of my family, Insha Allah and if I live that long.

Really, the truth is, when you have the desire that one day you will see yourself through in the mirror, you will, and Allah will help you to achieve your goals. I am saying this because I have seen it happen and I want to do the same as that person did. I know I will.

In fact, in my future I want to be a law enforcement officer. I love this career and it’s my dream that one day I will be in that uniform and perform my duties well in my community based on the law. I have ridden with cops several times already. I understand the ways and regulations that an officer must follow accordingly. It’s really a great job to do, and I choose to do this job because it’s a way of helping people and communities.