An Immigrant’s Story - Part 1 - The first time..
Most of the readers and authors of this blog are immigrants to the US. We all have a story, don’t we? The idea
The American Dream
that United States is the land of opportunity and education/work there is something I should aim for, was planted quite early on in my head. My parents regularly pointed out other kids that went to the US for work/study and portrayed it as a desirable thing. It is, honestly, but there is more to it. I was subjected to many interesting experiences - some good, some not so good, and some that I outright detest. I am going to talk about some of that.
One of my neighbors went to a prestigious college in India and then went for his Ph.D at MIT I believe. Trust me, I heard about that a MILLION times. Even an adult would get brainwashed with that kind of stuff, I was just a kid, what did I know?:)
I used to watch Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends at home back in Mumbai since my school days, so I guess I did have a pretty skewed opinion about what life in the US was about. I guess they don’t really have immigrants in these shows talking about the painful process of getting their green cards so there was no way to know about that ;).
My first memories of the process of preparing for the persuit of the American dream started after school when I needed to decide what I wanted to major in during high school. I chose science because I knew that’s what most people that went to study in the US did. Then I started college and in my third semester, some of the classmates were already memorizing word lists from Barron’s in preparation for the GRE. Starts with that one guy who has family in the US. Then it’s four or five people talking about. Before you know, EVERYONE in the class has a Barron’s under their desk. Peer pressure forced me to dig my nose into one of them as well, even though, by the time I was in the third semester, i wasn’t really sure if I did afterall want to leave my country for education or work. But I wasn’t thinking too much. I read the book and my parents and family encouraged it a lot, so there you go. I am glad I at least did not got to a GRE preparation class like some of the other kids did. A waste of time and money in my opinion. Looking back, college days are perhaps the most fun I’d ever have in my life and spending that precious time memorizing word lists was such a painful thing. That’s where it starts. The GRE’s English section is pretty challenging. I wish it weren’t. I wish there wasn’t as much of a focus on the meaning of words. I really don’t need a vocabulory of 5000 words to communicate effectively, but the makers of the GRE tests don’t realize that.
OK, after three to four months of sleepless nights and practice tests, the red letter day finally arrives - the day of the examination. I walk in to the examination center and I am greeted rudely by this lady sitting there for some reason I don’t even remember. I was pretty intimidated then, not knowing how to react. Later, I realized that my test was on September 11, 2002, a year after the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps the reason for the irritable behavior on the lady’s part. Fine, I take my test, do OK, and think I’ve done it - I am half-way there. Oh, not really. The ugly side is yet to come.
Does this sound like your story?
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January 6th, 2009 at 7:00 am
My gosh thats scary. But I guess Ive had horror of it all. I didnt know much about US until I graduated my bachelors degree and was told there you go, start your life in US from then it had been downhill. Maybe One day after you are done Ill share it too.
Thats scary though. Its as good as being brainwashed.
Also, about the GRE you dont need 5000 words or 500 or 50 words to communicate in US half of them have the vocabulary of a pine nut.