Personal Narrative: Moving To Iraq

A four year ago, I moved from Ethiopia to United State. When I was little I always wanted to go school in the U.S., so, we moved the summer before my freshman year in high school. I was enjoying summer, I visited my sibling in Washington and spend half of my summer in their house, I loved it. School started in August that year and I was excited. After a week of school, I realized what people saw when I talked.

It took 250$ and good deeds to create some doctor like me. Growing up I was the kid who looked at the world with open optimistic eyes. I grew up in a small city called Dora located in Iraq, the middle of three girls. I was born in the late 90s, I have been told that I was born "at the end of the good days". That's when Iraq's political circumstances were not at peace at all, at 2003 another war broke in Iraq.

I was born in a country six thousand miles from here, Mongolia. The better half of my childhood was spent playing soccer in the street with the neighborhood kids. I was content, surrounded by my loving family and amazing friends, until it all changed with an abrupt decision. I had reached the age where I had to think about my future beyond high school, whether I would go to a college, and where I want to be in life. Mongolia was not the most ideal country to achieve success, thus my parents decided to move me to the United States. With that, came both good news and bad news. Good news, I had a chance to start my life over. However, moving to a whole new country does come with its challenges. The first couple years were the most difficult times

Growing up in Iraq in the era between the gulf war, Iran war, and Iraq war with the United state was a challenge for me, but it was not harder challenge than all what my parents went through to keep me and my siblings safe and sound. My mother is one of the strongest people that I have came cross in my life. She was and still the best mother, teacher, and my best friend. She graduated from Al Mosul University in Iraq as a Mechanical Engineer. Being a daughter of graduated mother will always push me to complete my education and go even further to earn my master degree too.

A Vietnam vet? Where am I going to find a Vietnam vet for this assignment? When I first learned about this interview assignment, I did not know what to write about of who to interview. Until I remembered that my grandfather name Felix Ruiz went to the Vietnam War. My grandfather was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico in 1938. He came to the United States in 1957. He was 19 years old when he first came to the United States. Later, he looked for a job to start working and he told me he worked at this company called the bookbinder. He went to school but for a while, he said, he never really like school. In 1958, Army recruiters were looking for people to join the Army for the War in Vietnam, one of the recruiter ran towards my grandpa and told my grandpa if he likes the military and he said yes, but he told the recruiter that he do not have time for that right now. However, one day my grandpa made the decision to join the Army and go to War. Today, I am to inform about this great interview that I had with my grandfather Felix Ruiz during getting enlisted in the Army during the 1960s.

The school was mostly populated by mexicans who act hard there were barely any black people . So in the 7th grade I got jumped a few times because I was kinda an easy target since they saw me as a soft person ,but

How Being a Military Dependent Affected My Life Goals Being a military dependent is something I have known my whole life. My dad joined the Air Force in 1988 at the age of twenty-four. He initially joined the military to help people, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, this led him to fighting fires until 2010. I was born in the year 1999; I grew up with him working twenty-four hour shifts and then being home for twenty-four hours.

Coming from BCT to my unit was a big change. You go from standard military bearing to a laid back informal style. I arrive to my unit in July of 2008, from that point until January 2010 was spent training for a deployment. Now there is nothing that can prepare you for a deployment. You can go through all the briefings and all the trainings you want but nothing will prepare you for it. The day came to board the bus set out for a foreign country. I little about me first I am a very keep to myself person. I show zero emotion, as when I was a child I was poked fun at for showing any type of emotion. Once I boarded that bus I broke down and started to cry. I more I thought about it the more uneasy I became. I had to hold it together for

In my life I have faced some extremely trying experiences and, from them, learned some very valuable lessons. My father, SPC Theodore “TJ” Ingemanson, an Iraq War Veteran and Wounded Warrior, passed unexpectedly, from injuries he suffered during his deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was twelve years old. Two months after this devastating event, my mother was sent to prison for choices she made that impacted our lives in a negative way. Life, as I knew it, became a chaotic tailspin, changing rapidly and drastically. I moved in with my father’s aunt and uncle, as it is the home where he grew up, and they were the ones that my family trusted and knew they would provide a strong, stable, and loving home. Aunt Rose and Uncle Bob are the people that have

The Yankees formed us up into a wagon train, planning to take us to City Point. On the way there, I thought about the Union prisons, which is where I was headed. I read from the newspapers that the prisons were filled to their limits with soldiers and most soldiers didn’t even live because they froze to death, had chills and fevers (which killed them), or they starved to death because of the terrible food. I hope what I read was not true because Ma, Sarah and Sam really needed me alive, not dead. To take my mind off of everything that had happened, I started to read my book of psalms out loud. While I read, Private Turner (I found out his name because his fellow soldiers called him that when he told them he caught me) asked me who was I talking to.

I joined the Marine Corps on 21 August 2008. My primary MOS is Fixed-wing aircraft safety equipment mechanic, KC-130. As a Safety equipment mechanic I am required to troubleshoot, isolate, and repair survival equipment aboard the kc 130J/MV-22 platforms.

Life in the war front is completely different than what I had imagined. As a Nursing Sister, or Bluebird, my job never ends, which makes writing in this journal extremely difficult. So many men come in with disgusting wounds, I feel sick just thinking about it even though I have nursing experience back home. I only joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps because father decided to join the war front himself. I understand that as a militant who has aided in previous military acts would feel responsible to join the war but, he also has responsibilities at home. I can’t do everything myself! Father refuses to speak to me. When I try to tend his injuries, he doesn’t even look at me, or he would just go to another nurse. I don’t understand why he is angry with me, when he’s allowing himself to join the army and risk his entire life. His entire life depends on whether his rifle gets jammed after a rapid fire or not.

I heard Glenda tell Mom that since 9/11, she felt that John was experiencing those old urges, and she was worried that his old habits might resurface. I knew that she seemed worried about the new couple my mom invited, and I changed the subject back to the pervert. I said to Leo, “If we ever meet a three hundred pound hair lip, I’ll have you do all the talking.”

Transitioning to the American life as a ten-year-old child was extremely challenging. I was clueless and did not understand anything. English was painful to learn even though; I realized it must be essential to know it. Philippines was my home moreover, I missed the people, the food, and the places I have visited. School was especially a struggle to me. Everything felt so out of place and I did not quite grasps the lessons. However, I was never a quitter for the reason that, nothing could compare to the satisfaction of winning. Going to the library to check out every book I could was the first step in being successful. I looked up words I could not understand and made sure to study any time I could. The determination to succeed got me onto

For as long as I can remember there has always been a yearning deep within my innermost being to experience first hand an array of cultures and countries. As a teenager, I had the good fortune to travel throughout Europe and to live in Germany for two years. Traveling and living abroad was so appealing to me that I decided as a young adult to relocate to Mexico. While in Mexico I not only acquired a profound respect and appreciation for their culture, but also worked diligently in order to achieve a near native proficiency in the Spanish language. Upon my return to the United States, I slowly began to formulate my next adventure, a trip to the culturally rich and uniquely diverse country of China. Finally, a dream became a reality and I found