On War & Immigration:

I think people should know that immigrants leave their country because there are no jobs or they have some other problem. Immigrants come here to get jobs and they are willing to do jobs that we American people don’t want. A lot of immigrants come here to find peace, not to have fun. When immigrants get to the U.S.A they have nobody; just think how they are feeling. They are scared of people. Many immigrants are scared that police will take them. They don’t know how things are done here. Many immigrants to the U.S come from the Middle East because there is war right now. They come here just to find peace for their family. They are not here to earn money and go back. They want to build their families here. They don’t want to go back because they are afraid of losing their loved ones. That’s why many immigrants come to the U.S.A.; to be safe and live in peace.

Autobiographical Writing:

A Girl Sara Who Never Stayed Quiet

When I was back home in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I never talked to my teachers or my parents. I stayed quiet. My parents never let me talk that much because my brothers and sister were going to mess up everything for them. That is what they thought. They never knew what we wanted to say or what we had been up to. I was happy because I had friends to talk to and we had fun. Whenever we would come home, we had to stay quiet.

Our parents would talk, and we would listen and never say anything. When they would ask how our day was, we would say it was good. We had to follow what our parents said, but most of the time I never followed what my parents said because I was a girl who never wanted to stay quiet. When my parents were not home, I went and talked to my friends and their parents. Sometimes they would say, “Sara you talk a lot.”

Now I talk about my life and my friends. Talking is the most fun thing that I can do. Since I came to the U.S., I have the right to talk about and speak about whatever I want. It’s not like back home. I talk about everything that comes to my mind. When I don’t talk in any of my classes, I feel like I have no mouth.

I have no idea why, but I can’t stay quiet. I don’t mind what it is about; I just love to talk about anything. For example I talk about the books that I read. When I go home, I find it very interesting that some people talk more and I like that. Some of the teachers tell me that I talk a lot but I don’t mind them saying that to me. Talking makes me braver and that is one of the things that I like about it.

I will never stop talking. Talking is fun. I always ask my teachers things and they say, “Sara you ask a lot of things.” Sometimes people say too much talking is not good, but I disagree with them. When you are depressed, it helps you a lot. You come out of depression by talking to your friends or teachers. When you don’t talk, it’s like you locked yourself up so you can’t do anything that you want to do. I really can’t stay quiet because I am not depressed. I am happy every day and it makes me a lot happier to talk. Sometimes when I don’t talk, my teachers ask me if I am sick. But I stay quiet because they ask me to stay quiet.

I Didn’t Know How to Read

When I come to the U.S.A, I didn’t how to read. It was hard for me because when I would go some place my caseworker would give me a paper with a lot of writing on it and she would say read it. I couldn’t say I don’t know how to read because I felt embarrassed. But my family didn’t know what to do. I would go to class after school to ask my teacher to teach me how to read, but it was really hard. When I would go shopping, the cashier would give me a paper and say that I bought this many things, but I wouldn’t know what to do with it. Then I had to take it to my teacher and show it to her. Then she would tell me what it was because she spoke my language. Soon I started to learn ABCs.

I had only one friend and her name was Sadaf. We sat together, talked and slept in the class. The teacher would ask why we slept. I had no idea why I would sleep in my class. Maybe it was because I didn’t speak English. When the classmates would talk and write, I would think that I would never do well. A year later, I was in the same class but I never went to sleep. My teacher asked why I was not sleeping and I told her because now I understood. I learned how to read.

This was really important to me because in my family I was the only one who was talking to people about how my mom came to the U.S.A. It was really hard for me. When I learned how to read, I realized when you don’t how to read it is like you are blind. You can see things happen, but you can’t read. Writing looks like only lines. Anywhere, for people who don’t know how to read, life is very hard like it was for me when I came to the U.S.A. until I learned how to read.

Now it is very fun reading books. I love to read books that tell stories of people’s lives. I write when I am free. I write to myself saying things that I need to work on and I have a lot of fun with it. I am teaching my mom how to read and write because she never went to school. Now she has dreamed that her daughter will become a doctor and I will complete it for her. I do teach my older brother as well; he never went to school either. I opened e-mail for him, and I e-mail him things and then I read it with him so he can get better at it. My mom said that my brother would never be able to use the computer, but I proved that she was wrong. Now he knows how to use a computer because I helped him to read and he knows now what do to. He is better than before.

I Want to Be a Doctor!

I want be a doctor so I can help people. I want to become a doctor because in my country we don’t have that many doctors to help people. I saw a lot of people dying and they needed a doctor to help them. After that day, I wanted to be a doctor. I saw my brothers sick in Afghanistan and they had no doctor to go to. If the people were lucky to see a doctor, they had to walk for 4 hours.

I always wanted to be a doctor and to help people. I know that in my country women have no rights to study or become a doctor, but I still dream of it. I was the only girl among my friends who had a dream that I would one day go to school and become a doctor. All the girls’ dreams were killed because they were not allowed to study. Most of the girls wanted to be doctors or some thing that can help sick people in Afghanistan, but most of them never went to school. Only I came to the U.S. and now I am planning to become a doctor and go help the needy people.

My family had gone to school and they told us that school is important for us. They taught us even when we had no school. When we moved to Pakistan, I started going to school. Whenever the teacher would ask what I wanted to be, I would say that I wanted to be a doctor. I had a grandfather who was really sick. I could never do anything for him. He would always say that things were hurting him. I would look up to him and try to touch the places where he said it hurts so the pain would be gone but nothing would help him. My grandfather passed away in pain. I wish I could have taken the pains away, but I couldn’t.

I was a very happy person, but I had some problems seeing people die in front of me. That is what made me decide to become doctor. The pain I saw made me think that I should become a doctor to help people. I can use my life to help others which I always wanted to do. I know it is not easy to become a doctor, but I will give up everything to become a doctor. This is one of my mom’s dreams as well, that her daughter will become a doctor one day. I promised my mom that I will fulfill her dream.