By Mia (4th Grade)
A few weeks ago, my mom and my dad went to the U.S Citizenship and Immigrants Services downtown. There they took the Pledge of Allegiance at the naturalization ceremony. When they finished, they were officially Amaricans. Their American dream had come true. Though they were not the only ones in my family to have an American dream. My family has been pursuing this dream for at least 3 generations.
My great grandfather has always been determined to be a doctor, even when he was little. He left China and went to America for two reasons. One was because China fell into a long period of civil war. Another was because America had the most advanced programs in the world at that time.
In 1942 he went to America. In order to be a doctor he needed to go to a medical school to study. He applied for some medical schools and got admitted by Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago. My great grandfather learned 7 subjects at the dental school, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English, Statistics, and Introductory Biochemistry. He worked very hard as a student. Each night he would only get 4-5 hours of sleep, and he spent most of his time in the library getting ready for tests.
I asked my grandma and my dad, but neither of them knew how he was earning money. So I searched it up and I found out that students in graduate schools earn money by getting an employer to pay for graduate school, secure a graduate school scholarship, work for the graduate school, borrow smart, and use available credit. I think that he either secured a graduate school scholarship, or his family supported him.
Also, he had never been to America before. In America, the language was different, and the food was different too. In China, he had never eaten cheese before. And in America there were lots of strange foods that he had never seen. English was also hard for him. Although he was good at reading and writing, he wasn’t so good at speeking English. I think that learning English is the same as me learning Chinese. Except, I grew up with my mom and dad speaking Chinese and my great grandfather had never heard a word of English before coming to the U.S.
After 2 years of hard work he graduated in 1950. His whole journey took 3 years to complete. It took him 1 year to enroll into a school, then it took him 2 years to graduate.
If he stayed in America he would have had a nice life, and he would get paid more. But before he could graduate something extraordinary happened. The war in China ended. The government said that they would create a new China, and my great grandfather wanted to help. Also his family was in China, his wife and his children. He had 6 children, and he wanted to go back home to live with them. So he traveled back to Shanghai and became a dentist. He became a dentist because he was already a dentist when he left China to go study in America.
When my grandma was young, she always heard my great grandfather talk about his life in America. He told them about how big the library was and how beautiful the campus was. After my grandma graduated from college she had the same dream to go to America as well. She wanted to learn math in graduate school. When my grandma was 32 years old she applied for graduate schools in the U.S. and got admissions. She was so excited, her dream was about to come true. She rushed all the way home, and told her family what happened.
But when my grandma was about to go to America, she found out that she was pregnant. She had to make a decision. She was either going to stay in Shanghai and take care of my dad instead of going to learn math in America, or she was going to leave my dad with my grandpa. She knew that she should stay with my dad, but she also wanted to go to America. At the end she decided to stay. She was really sad that she had to give up her dream, but she hoped that my dad would finish it for her.
When my dad was young, my grandma told him how his grandfather went to America, and how she didn’t. My dad was very determined to come to America. So my dad traveled to this country after he graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai. When he applied for graduate schools, the Internet was really popular. My dad had an option to apply online, while my grandma had to send letters to graduate schools which could take months to deliver. He went to a Ph.D. program in University of Cincinnati to learn physics. After he arrived he found out that the campus was as beautiful as my great grandfather had described, and the library was just as big. My dad said that he stayed because America had better chances for him.
That is the story of how three generations of my family left their home to pursue their american dream. Now it is my turn, I will follow my own dream now. I know it will be hard, but I will be prepared, I will not give up easily.