I was born in a third-world country in Central Asia. The country is under dictatorship. We had to escape illegally and took off hoping that nobody would catch us. We lived in Russia for 10 years. My mother only could hold jobs that paid under the table and those are not high paying jobs.
My sister and I always went to school. Education has been always a priority in my family. Every time we moved to a new location, the first thing my mother did was go find the best school in the region and bribe the teachers to take us in illegally.
My mother is a one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen in my life. She raised my sister and I all alone in a new country. When we found out we’d been accepted to come to the U.S. as refugees, we were thrilled.
I feel like I have a country now because for many years I was not a citizen of anywhere. I did not exist in the system anywhere. And at this point I was valid. My existence was valid. I am about to graduate from Rhodes College on a full ride, my sister just recently got accepted to TCU on a full ride, and my mother is a certified teacher. I would not be where I am right now if the U.S. did not accept me as a refugee and Catholic Charities did not help me integrate into the society.
