Let me try to keep this one short. My other blog articles are way too long.
There are very few moments in life that deserve to be called life-changing. For me, moving to the United States certainly was one.
A Brave New World
Wake up. Squeeze through the crowded subway to go to school. Hope you don't fail the next test, which there was one every two days or so. That was my life as a kid in Beijing, China.
Until one day in 7th grade, my mom suddenly told me: "we are going to the United States".
Wow. White people. Black people. Hispanic people. Other Asian people. Native people. Hallway with lockers. Football and basketball games. School bus. People speaking English. People being bad at math.
I had only seen such scenes in movies; now, I am going into a movie scene myself. The movie is called the United States of America.
America!
Fresh Off the Boat
My family first stayed with my aunt in Chicago suburb called Gurnee for the rest of my 7th grade. As my mom finalized my registration for enrollment at Woodland Middle School after awkwardly explaining to the registrar to change my gender from the incorrectly selected "female" to "male" on the paperwork because of her bad English, the game was on.
Holy... I really walked into a movie scene. Everything was so different indeed! I received everyone's stare of curiosity, plus some warm introduction from each of my teacher that I didn't understand -- I didn't know English. Or like, I knew English only to the extent somebody who took Spanish 1 in middle school would.
Kids talked and walked around in class without getting yelled at. Teachers sat on desks without presenting themselves as the absolute overlords over the kids. Freedom and equality as manifested in school classrooms.
I had no idea what everyone was saying, but smiles and some basic phrases like "can I go to the bathroom" saved me a long way. I was left out of every bus ride convo and classroom gossip that I was dying to know; years later when my English matured enough, alas, I was no longer in an environment where kids' innocence and puppy love gossips lied, but are now instead filled with jargons of computer science.
Fortunately, there was one -- and only one -- Chinese-speaking fella in the entire grade, so, that was my first friend in the U.S. Spencer Shi. That was his name. I annoyed him with endless questions like "what's she saying" and observations like "wow no one is paying attention in class and the teacher would just let that happen, this would never happen in China", to which Spencer always said, "嗯哼 这里是美国 (well, this is America)".
Many years later, I tried to reconnect with Spencer by searching him on every social media you can imagine, and I failed. If you know how I can find Spencer, please let me know. Much appreciated.
Oh nevermind. As I'm writing this article, I found him. On LinkedIn. SPENCER! Please accept my connection request. LOL.
As my vocabulary increased thanks to immersed with endless classroom gossip and bus ride convos, I was able to make a couple more friends. Stephanie. Elijah. Logan. And a bunch of names I forgot. They would ask about my life in China, I would reply; and I would ask them back some basic small talk questions, because I couldn't compose more sophisticated questions. Funny times.
Back home, my aunt and mom pressured me to do reading and writing practice questions and listen to CNN news to better my English. My dad even forced me to memorize TOEFL vocab, the vocab used for college-level English readiness that people in China would only start to learn in their college years. I thought my dad was crazy to throw college-level stuff at a 12 year-old, only to realize, the words in TOEFL were actually the least bare minimum to survive in the U.S., so he was right in every regard to have me learn TOEFL. His unconventional method that actually worked also taught me a golden rule that guided many of my later endeavors: shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll still be among the stars.
But besides TOEFL, I had nothing else to fill my free time, which degenerated into doom-scrolling Youtube videos, Wikipedia pages, and being addicted to a Dinosaur shooting game.
The snow in Gurnee was absolutely gorgeous, so was the landscape of suburbia, a concept that I never fathomed in skyscraper-filled Chinese cities. Traveling to Chicago was a common weekend ritual for my family, so was browsing around the county parks with their gorgeous views. The leisure, and the abundance of space and nature, was something I didn't know existed in the hurried Beijing school life.
Back in school, I was immersed with all the American classics: how Star-Spangled Banner got its name, the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the Civil War, and, of course, the half-heated and totally oily pizza at the cafeteria. With some "fruits" that came in a plastic cup with cartoon on it. Healthy diet indeed. No wonder America is the most in-shape country in the world.
Time flew. At the end of the semester, somehow, I earned an A in every class except science, which I was horrified by the B+ until I realized I and another girl named Hannah Magliola were the only receipients of B+, and B+ was the highest grade given in that class.
My science teacher, who was also the home room teacher, Ms. Coroush, was the nicest old lady I've ever met. She explained everything to me twice and slowly, made sure I wasn't left out of anything, and made sure I felt welcome, which I absolutely was. Ms. Coroush, as well as all the other teachers (Mr. Oshrow, Ms. this-and-that that I don't remember anymore), as well as all of my peers, made my fresh off the boat experience a memory as sweet as it can get.
I miss you all. Even though I don't remember many of your names, LOL. You know, folks always remember their first. To the kiddos I met back in Woodland Middle School, you were my first friends, and, I guess using adult's business-talk, I wanna say, "I am forever grateful to all of you for appearing in my life".