Living in This World

I'm just a young Californian boy of the age of 8. I was born in this state and have lived here ever since. I have made many friends and we play together all the time after school. We don't have a care in the world...

I'm just a young Filipino boy of the age of 8. I came to America as an immigrant with my family when my dad received a job offer in California. I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay in the country where I felt at home, where I didn't feel different, and where I didn't feel judged on a daily basis. I wanted to stay in a place where I didn't feel like I was alienated from the rest of the world...

Today my friends and I played after school. We played dinosaurs and cops and then my mom gave us yummy popsicles from the freezer. I was sad when my friends had to go home, but then I turned happy again when I realized I would see them tomorrow at school.

During most of the trip to America, I was sad that I was leaving the home that I knew so well. But once we landed at the American airport in California, I began to feel more nervous and scared than sad. The reality of it all was coming to pass. I was now in America, thousands of miles away from my home. Everything here was different. There were so many unfamiliar faces...

I had to go to school today, but I don't like it. It's super hard because I have to learn things and the teachers send home homework. It's really hard to go to school because of the homework, and also because I have to wake up early.

Today when I got to school, I found my friends and we played on the playground during morning recess. When the teacher blew the whistle for us to come inside, my friends and I raced each other to the school. We ran to the classroom but got yelled at by the hall monitor because we weren't supposed to run in the halls.

My friends and I were the first ones in the classroom, and when we entered, a boy was sitting at the art table. He was coloring a picture. The boy looked up at me and lightly smiled. I smiled back at him. I thought about coloring with him, but then my friends said they wanted to go play with the cars. So I went with them and we played cars.

I had to go to school today. My parents said it was going to be fun and that I could start making friends. I didn't want to go, though. I didn't know what it was going to be like. Would it be hard or would it be fun like my parents said? My mom took me to school and walked me to my classroom. No one was in there. My mom asked me if I wanted to go play on the playground. I saw the playground as we were walking to the building, but I didn't feel like playing.

My mom hugged me goodbye and I was left alone in the classroom. I started looking around the classroom. It was very colorful and I liked that. There was an area for toys, a reading area, and an art area. I went over to the art area and found some crayons and paper. There was a little table where I sat down and started coloring.

A few minutes later I heard a voice and then the sound of running feet. Four boys ran into the room. I kept my head down and kept coloring. Three of the boys ran off to the toy area, but one boy stood where he was. I looked up at him and shyly smiled. He smiled back at me. He looked like he wanted to color. I thought about asking him to color with me, but his friends called him over to play. So he went over to play with them and I was left at the table to continue coloring by myself.

I learned that the boy's name was Miguel. He seemed like a nice kid. My teacher told the whole class that he came from a whole other country - a tropical island to be in fact - called the Pillow Beans. My friend whispered in my ear that the people on the island swam with dolphins every day and fished and fought sharks with spears.

Whoa, I thought. This kid is cool!

It startled me when the woman came up to me and asked my name. She told me her name was Mrs. Murray and that she was the teacher of the class. I told her my name was Miguel. It wasn't too hard speaking or understanding English. My parents had taught me it along with our native tongue, Tagalog.