9/29/2013
The Freedom to Be Heard
Dalai Lama once said “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it”. This relates to me personally because my parents gave up everything they had back home in Jordan, just so their children can have a better and brighter future. My parents knew that there would be some tough obstacles that we might face as a family, but they know that it will be worth it at the end when they see their children successful. They understand that the U.S is the proper place where their kids can mature and achieve what they dream of. Their decision to bring us here spreads out a new life in front of me, which has affected me mainly in three aspects; language, behavior, and vision.
Trying to adjust to a new life was a problem at first because of the language. I found myself deaf and dumb, I couldn't speak or understand what other people were talking about. In the following days, I found that many things that were extremely easy in Jordan became the biggest problems to me in the U.S.; I couldn't understand the TV programs and couldn't read newspapers and magazines. Every day I went to school and spend a long day there listening, reading, and writing in language that was strange to me. I often read books until my eyes became blurry. After several months, I surprisingly found that I was able to simply communicate with

Others, and I also could read and write some relatively complex articles which gave me a lot of confidence. Now I believe that my new life will be beautiful as long as I do my best.
The second effect on me was the change in my behavior. With the improvement of my
English, I gradually made contact with the American culture, and further experienced cultural differences. The American culture is definitely different from the Jordanian culture in many ways. Compared with Jordanian people, most American people are friendlier, more enthusiastic, and more accommodating. I can see this from many things that are so common in American people's eyes. When I walked on the road, I often met some strangers smiling to me or saying hello. As I drove in a bad weather and faced trouble, a kindhearted woman stopped and offer me some help. All of this made me feel that people here act like as community not just individuals. However in Jordan, I have seen many times a bus driver who has seen someone running to catch the bus, but still drives away and leaves the person waiting behind for another bus. In the hospital, people often meet some nurses with an attitude who keep yelling at their patients, which I never met in the US. On the other hand, I had been taught to be modest and observe discipline when I was in Jordan.
Being proud publicly about personal achievement or progress is regarded as superficial and a person will be criticized. In Jordan Students are not encouraged to doubt what their teachers say, instead in most cases, they just listen in class to what their teacher is talking about. But in the US, every student is encouraged to freely raise his own opinion in class no matter if it is consistent with the teacher's idea or not, and everyone has the right to be proud of his own progress. In my eyes, the American culture is one of the cultures that encourages self-confidence, inspires people to raise different ideas, and encourages everyone to be proud of their achievements. From Americans, I have learned how to help other people and how to express my
Own opinion in public. Now I am franker, more enthusiastic, and more self-confident than before.
Third and most important, my new life has taught me how to think about the world from a different perspective. Since I came to the US, I have found that some of what I used to take for granted is not so reliable any more. When I was in Jordan, because of government policy, any opinions that are different from the official point of view almost had no chance to be heard through public media. People's minds are forcedly kept consistent with the so-called main stream. The longer I live here, the stronger this feeling about this. I think the greatest lesson I got from my American life so far is that I have learned how to observe and think about problems from a different angle, not just from the angle I was told to see. For me, that's the first meaning of freedom and I believe that I can learn other meanings of it as I learn more and more in the future.
My four years in the US have brought me more than what the previous years in Jordan did. I have learned not only how to speak English, but also how to behave. The most important thing is that it has taught me how to see this colorful world with a vision without prejudice and limitation; a vision full of equality, freedom, and love. This is the reason why my family brought me and my sisters to the United States of America.