Moving to this country 11 years ago was one of my biggest struggles as a child. Today, I thank God for giving me the courage to keep my vision and trust my struggles.
As a child, I always wanted to live in the U.S. Every time I watched movies I used to say, “One day I’m going to live there and enjoy the beach every weekend.”
I was raised in Cali, Colombia for most of my childhood. I moved to Miami when I was 13 because my mother wanted a better future for me. At that age, I didn’t understand many things. Why did my parents fight all the time? Why did my mom want to leave all of the sudden? I had many unanswered questions that were going to remain unanswered for a long time. No one could really explain to me what was going on.
Soon the idea of coming to the U.S started to seem like a horrible nightmare. My mom left a year before me, and I stayed with my dad in Colombia that year. My mom used to call me a lot to convince me to leave and move to the U.S. She is a very strong woman, and I have always admired her for that. So I followed in her foot-steps, and I finally came to Miami.
I arrived in July 2001, and I will never forget that day. Leaving my dad was extremely heartbreaking. In addition to that, getting used to a new country was difficult. The fact that I had a new step-father, I didn’t have friends, and I couldn’t speak the language or understand the culture was a painful and a frustrating part of my adjustment.
Eventually, I started middle school. ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) seemed like the only class where I actually learned something. As soon as I walked in the class, I could hear the Venezuelans speaking with the Colombians in Spanish, so I sat right next to them. Finally, something made sense to me. Soon the teacher walked in and said in Spanish, “si no aprenden ingles las oportunidades en en este pais van a ser muy limitadas.” This means, “Without the language the opportunities in this country will be severely limited”. Right after that she said, “I don’t want to hear anybody speaking Spanish in my class. We are in the United States.” So we all started learning small words at first like ”restroom”, “Lunch” and other common words. With time, we started speaking broken English with rough accents. We were always making fun of each other. No one was really ashamed because we were all embarrassing our selves at the same time.
After the class was over, we would go back to speaking Spanish. We all sat together at lunch, and we would go out after school to the mall, movies, etc. We formed a Spanish group. The school was divided into groups, and everybody sat in the group where they felt comfortable. Little by little I was avoiding my problems at home. At 15 years old I got my first job, so I moved out and I bought a Mustang. Everything was starting to work to my advantage. I wanted to bring my dad to the U. S., so I could spend time with him and take him places he had never been before.
After I became a citizen, I started saving money to bring him here. I got a job at the Versace mansion as a bartender when I was 17, and I was making more money than I had ever seen before. Those were some of the happiest times of my life; I used to imagine taking my dad to New York and showing him Miami. Also, I always wanted to see the world. After moving to another country, and learning a different language, diversity was not an issue, especially living in Miami, besides learning from the American culture I was learning from many more cultures. I used to interact with people from different places of the world on a daily basis. I think that opened up my mind and curiosity for exploring different continents.
I have come to realize one thing. When I stay in the same place for a long time, doing the same thing I have always done, without getting out of my comfort zone, I don’t really learn much and grow very little. I always wanted to be a citizen of the world. I’ve been blessed by having the opportunity to visit many countries. I have visited Australia, New Zealand, China, Morocco, Egypt, The Middle East, London, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, P.R, the Caribbean, among many others. I believe traveling can bring you an understanding you can’t get any other way. I can’t explain it. You have to live it. Traveling has influenced me to learn to speak and read Arabic, but one of my greatest travel experiences was taking my father who just became a resident, to N.Y. This month my travel craving has being satisfied by celebrating and enjoying the Hispanic culture. Life seems just like I imagined it years ago as a little child. If you would like to see pictures of all the places I visited, you can check them out on Instagram @isabelmurillo22
