Starting School in America
Pryscilla Marshia Dechaviony
My name is Pryscilla Dechaviony. My last week in Indonesia was very sad. I had to leave my family, and that was the last week I was going to see them again. I wasn’t very scared to come to America because my aunt was here before me. It was very hard to say good-bye to my grandmother, whom I had lived with. The last time seeing her was at the airport. I tried to not cry but I did thinking that I wouldn’t see my grandmother until I could come back again. Sometimes when I call her I want to cry because I miss her very much.
It was around the beginning of September when my family and I arrived in America. My aunt picked us up at the airport. I was so glad that I could see her again, for I was very close to her. She didn’t own a car so we rode a taxi. Looking out from the taxi’s window, I knew that I was going to be in a different environment here. I felt that it was going to be different to live without my grandmother and not to see my other aunts and uncles and my cousin. I didn’t feel right being in Philadelphia.
When I arrived here, my house was on Mole Street. The house was rented so other people had lived there before me. The house wasn’t that clean but was kind of good to live in. I lived there for one year and we moved because there was a problem with the house. My aunt had lived with me in that house, but she moved when I moved.
My first day of school was very scary. I just wanted to run away even though I didn’t know where I was. I was in the third grade back then. I went to a school called St. Thomas Aquinas School, a Catholic school to be exact, where my aunt registered me before I arrived. I went in to the school, and I was taken to my classroom. I looked around and it was pretty weird to be in a classroom full of people that didn’t speak the language that I did. I felt like I didn’t belong there.
The teacher was kind of mean to one particular boy because he always acted up in class. I remember that the teacher told the whole class that it was lunch time, and I had no idea what she meant by lunch until someone said, “Lunch, eat!” I knew what “eat” meant so I took my lunch out and went with everybody to the lunchroom.
After school, my mom picked me up, and we went home. I had written everything that was on the board in my notebook. My aunt asked me why I didn’t have any homework, so she wanted to see my notebook. Since I didn’t know “homework” meant homework, I didn’t do it until she pointed it out to me.
I have been in America for six years now. After all these years in the U.S., I still miss my family in Indonesia. It was hard for me that year in third grade, but I just kept moving on, and now I know how to speak English and comprehend what people say to me. I graduated from that school, and now, I attend South Philadelphia High School.
Did You Know...
The Social Security Administration estimates that undocumented immigrants contribute between $6 and $7 Billion in Social Security taxes that they will never be able to claim.
