Crossing Flatbush Avenue

M.A. was originally born in Yemen, when I asked the question of where he was born M.A stated, “I’ve been asked that question so many times, since my five years of living in the united states and when I tell people I’m from Yemen it sounds to them like it’s a strange country…my response is usually, if you never heard of Yemen, its located in the Middle East, not far from Saudi Arabia. He now lives in the Flatbush area of the borough of Brooklyn with his parents and siblings. M.A is focused and aware of what he wants out of life.

Now all of my immediate family members are here living in the United States. My father was the first to immigrate to the U.S. it was during the civil rights movements, he use to travel back and forth between the U.S. and Yemen until about fiver years ago he decided it was time to settle down in one place with his family and that’s when he started the long process of paperwork.

I have job, I work within the family business, I work part time as a cashier and a manager. While I’m not working I attend the city University of Technology. I know I’ve only been in the U.S. for five years but within my time of being here I managed to graduate from high school a year early and now I’m a sophomore in college.

Originally I came to the U.S. because of my father; as I can recall it was early one morning around 2am when my father woke me up and said “we are going to be leaving in the morning” I was so tired I just brushed him off with a yea, yea. A mean I didn’t take him serious at all but when he woke me up at 6am and told me to look about the plane tickets I realized how serious he was. The only available tickets were for a flight leaving around three in the morning. I remember how crazy that day was because we had to run around town to tell all of our family members’ good-bye and pack on such a short notice. The hardest thing about that day was telling my mother bye; it was only going to be my father, my sister and my brother who I may say was younger than I was going with my father. When I was telling her bye I didn’t cry I wanted to but I wouldn’t have appear to be ‘manly’ so I didn’t. when I landed at the airport it hit me that my life was about to change, I told myself that I’m going to have to man up and take care of my other siblings. Two other reasons why I was in the U.S. were for a good education and for a better career opportunity; these two things leads to a better life of course.

I had two different types of expectations, a good and kind of a bad expectation of what my life would be like in the U.S. I was expecting my life to be easy and smooth, by getting my education and making lots of money at the same time. When I was back home I thought the American life is an easy life and money comes easily without worry about how and where to make it [speaking about money]. The reason for my bad expectation was mostly a worried one; I was really worried about coming to a new country where I don’t know anyone, I didn’t speak the language, and I feared facing all kinds of different obstacles. But I somehow knew that all those things were going to lead to a bright future.

My expectations about some of the obstacles I thought I was going to face came true, I really did have to face some of those hardships. The most important and difficult one I had was to learn the English language. I felt like a person from a different planet having people around me talking to each other without me understanding a word of what they were saying. I knew I was going to have a very difficult time especially making friends. The big reality was about the money, man was I wrong for thinking that money was going to come so easily! You have to work so hard to make it and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a job. Even the education you have to work so hard for it especially from the heart just to reach where you want to be in the future. I learned a valuable lesson which was, things don’t come as easy as you think!

All these expectations came from people who have lived a life in the United States and came back to Yemen to tell their stories about their life in America. In some ways my life now is the way I expected it to be as when I was back home to some extent. To be frank the life in America is easier compared to the life back in Yemen. Here in America we have more goods and services and education is valued higher with more supportive techniques.

When I first came from Yemen I thought it would be impossible for me to learn English. But now I believe English is one of the easiest languages to learn compared to my native language. I had a very hard time understanding English during my first year in the U.S. however throughout the years things started to get easier. So in the past few years I managed to learn a new language, how to speak it, read it and even how to write it. I feel comfortable using English in all contexts. In all actuality now I mostly use English in my daily life because of work, school and social life. Though this doesn’t mean I’ve neglected my native language, which I do speak at home to my parents, family members and others who don’t understand English.

I haven’t changed my lifestyle or values since I have been in the U.S. I still do whatever I did back home, and never had the pressure to change my lifestyle. I am currently a U.S citizen; I got my citizenship about a year after I came to America. When my father filed for his citizenship I was under eighteen years of age so I was able to get my citizenship through him.

I think of myself as a Yemen-American because I was born in Yemen and I now have a U.S citizenship. The term “American” to me, means a person who was born in the United Stated or carries the U.S citizenship. I think my experience of immigration is a fairly common one; there is nothing unusual about it. Since we are in the land of freedom and opportunities I will keep carrying on my religious beliefs and try to keep up with my cultural practices even though I am living in a very diverse society. I guess I’m trying to maintain both the Yemen and American cultures. I don’t have any children yet, but when I do have some I am going to make them keep up with these cultural things also.

In ten years I see myself married with a beautiful wife with about one or two kids. I see myself having a nice job as a manager in this big computer company after completing my master’s degree in computer science. Hopefully that job is going to be paying me a god salary so I can get my dream car and house. Since life is so unpredictable in ten years you never know what life is going to throw your way especially on NYC. Now that I am making money I might move somewhere better and quiet, maybe in long island since Brooklyn is so chaotic and loud.