“Something that changed my life was when I moved to the U.S. and met my cousins. We have been living here for three years or so. That was something new to me. For me, something that was really different from Uzbekistan – my home country – was the people here. They are much friendlier. Also, the cafeteria food – there are more options here than in my country. In the schools in Uzbekistan, we had small stores within the school but they mostly sold small goodies like slimes. There was also the language barrier. At first, it was really hard for me. In middle school, when I first went there, they had to use Google Translate to translate everything because I was a complete beginner. It was pretty bad.

In middle school, we had a group for people who spoke more than one language and they gave us extra work. I did a lot of different assignments using books. It took me about seven months to two years to get over the language barrier. 

It was very different coming to the U.S. In my country, we should have stayed after school and cleaned the classroom, and we were basically supposed to do everything like clean the bathrooms and the windows. We also had uniforms and the school was really strict about it. It was like a white top and a black skirt. On the first day, girls had to wear white bows in their hair.

My school, back home, looked a little smaller than [State High]. We didn’t have any clubs but we had an option for people to stay after school and do their homework. They didn’t have electives and just gave you a separate schedule for each student. But here, it was like ‘Wow, something new!’ We have more options and we can be freer. But I really miss my country – the foods, and friends, cousins, and aunts.”