Personal statement

              Till this day, I still remember the last hug I gave my grandparents before boarding the plane back to the United States. I wasn't ready to leave them. As far as I knew, they were my parents. My parents sent me to live with my grandparents when I was just four years old. Growing up in West Africa, Guinea was the only life I really knew. Often times, my family would talk about America and how much different it is from where we lived. But to me, Guinea was the best place to be. I had friends and family I knew very well .To me it didn't matter that America looked better because it had tall buildings or that the lights were beautiful, All that mattered was that I was around people I knew and loved a lot.

            Moving to a new state and not knowing the language spoken and even worst not even remembering the way your parents looked was hard. Even though they always told me I was going to leave guinea I never actually understood why. I was told in America, life is better. "you have so many better opportunities to live a better life" my grandmother would say in our native language. My aunts and uncles would talk about going to college and getting a good job. At the time I did not understand. Now nine years later, I 'am a senior in high school and getting ready to go off to college. Everything I was told is becoming clearer day by day.

         America is the place to be somebody. Every day you are working towards becoming somebody in the future. Somebody who is successful. These are the things that started to become clear to me. Since moving to the United States, my view on America was horrible because I was so use to Guinea, nothing could top it.

         In college I want to major in nursing. Even though I ‘am still not sure what aspect of nursing I’m interested in yet, but it’s something I have been thinking about for a while now. I want to accomplish this because something about helping people makes me joyful and nursing is a good career path for me to pursue. I never thought I would say that America has changed my life for the better, but it has. America has given me a better education then I would have gotten back in Guinea. Of course I still think about going back. I know my family over there would love to hear about how I ‘am getting ready to go off to college and finally start my life. Never forget your roots and where you came from. I know I was born in America but Africa raised me and that’s something I could never forget.