It was a bright, sunny day in Amman, Jordan, May of 2014,  when my mom picked me up from school. She was wearing her pink headscarf and some nice blue jeans and a pink and white panel shirt with a nice thin black jacket with black heels. My mom smiled at me and asked, “Did you make any friends today? Did you sit with anybody at lunch sweetheart? ” I looked at her with disappointment and despair and said “No, I just got bullied and picked on. Some people made fun of how white I am and that my eyes keep shaking and how close I get to my phone screen.  It was horrible”. So I am sitting in the car when my mom smiled back.  I can see how excited she was.  She couldn't wait to tell me that “We got our green card!” and I looked at her with confusion and said “What does that mean?”, she then said “We are moving to America so you can get the best education and not have to be worried about getting bullied anymore”. I was so happy I was over the moon full of joy and happiness and I said to myself, “I can't wait to brag about this to everyone tomorrow”. But then I told my mom in a very low voice “does that mean we well be leaving everyone behind? What about grandma and grandpa and my cousins.” She sighed and said “Don't worry Osamah, we will come back for visits and vacations.” I told her in a very excited yet anxious voice, “Okay.”

A few weeks after school was over I hear that loud sound coming out the engine. People talking, laughing, hugging, saying their goodbyes over the phone, I see suitcases and a lot people crowded all together. Me and my sister Abby sat by each other, she was wearing some pink sweatshirt and pink sweatpants, and I don't mean the color pink I'm talking about the brand that was my sisters favorite store, and she was wearing her adidas shoes. A few minutes later I hear the magical sound of the captain, a loud straight edge voice “Welcome to royal Jordanian airlines….we hope you enjoy your flight” then of course we had to go through the safety procedure that was shown on the screen In front of me, I didn't pay much attention to that the women talking, her voice was like a commercial staged voice, I thought her voice was annoying so I didn't listen much. Then the airplane engine got louder and louder like a marching band times ten, I couldn't hear myself talk, my ears started to hurt I got a instant headache, and then I hear our captains voice, “Ready for take off”. All I can think about is the people l am leaving behind, all my family and friends living in Jordan, but at the same time I was so excited to go to America and make a future for myself. The airplane ride was 13 hours, my sister slept the whole flight with her earbuds on listening to music. I on the other hand was watching movies on the little screen bored out of my mind. The airplane engine was so loud I couldn't hear my movie, my mom called upon me and asked, “Are you okay Osamah do you want something to eat?” I smiled at my beautiful mom and said, “No, I'm okay, not really hungry.”  After 12 hours 30 minutes have passed the captain yelled over the speaker. “Please put on your seat belts and prepare for landing” I instantly take off my headphone in panic and excitement put on my seatbelt and whispered a few prayers. Even though the captains voice was loud people talking, yelling, laughing, my sister did not wake up. It was great to watch. I look at the time and there is about 5 minutes left all of sudden I hear, “Ready for landing” my sister finally woke up she saw me I was panicking, scared, but so excited. The second the airplane wheel touched the grounds of beautiful America I thanked god for safely landing and for everything my family is doing for me. I knew I was going to have a bright future here in Wisconsin.

After we have landed safely at Chicago international airport we sat in the plane a little bit until the engine cooled down. The captain yelled, “please keep your seatbelts on until the engine has completely cane to a stop”. I thought that was pretty dumb but I guess I understand. Finally the engine stopped and it’s time to leave the overly crowded plane, I was so excited to leave my legs were killing me and my lower bottom was numb, but anyway we get outside off the airport and the beautiful sunny, windy, stunning city of Chicago hit me out of nowhere. A few minutes after I saw a big gray van pulling up In front of us. Turns out to be my Uncle Osamah and his wife Tamara and of course my favorite cousins Seeham, Dina, and the baby Mohammed, my Uncle was wearing his adidas workout uniform, his wife was wearing a beautiful scarf with nice jeans and shirt very similar to my mom, and all my cousins were wearing just something they pulled out of there closet randomly. After we hugged and kissed, we went in the car and because there was many of us we had to cramp our self inside the van like a pack elephants trying to get inside a Small car. There was a moment of dead silence in the car everyone was quite. My Uncle was focusing on the road ahead and my baby cousin was sleeping, so I pulled out my phone and told my mom can I call our family in Jordan, she said do it when we get Home sweetheart. So I said fine, I missed my cousins living in Jordan so much. A flashback hit me and I really didn’t want it to I started to remember how much my grandma and grandpa cried when we left, I started tearing up a little bit, but didn’t want anyone to notice so I pretended to be laughing at something, no one asked what I was laughing at because the dead silence in the car is still in place. After a few minutes my dad and my Uncle started taking about grown up things, my mom and Tamara where talking about my baby cousin mohammed, and me and my cousins played a game on my iPad. After one hour and about thirty minutes we arrived at my house. God it felt so good to see my house I couldn’t believe I have a house in America it’s great, we went in and the house was amazing , very small kitchen, and very nice living room, and a nice fancy dining table I went upstairs to “my room”, not really my room, me and my sister are going to roommate my mom said, inside I was like, “oh come on why?” But really I said “okay” with a fake smile, I love my sister I really do but she is really messy. Anyway I was tired so I went to sleep the bed was comfortable but I miss my bed in Jordan. I was laying in bed watching Netflix I was watching some wired show just to help me go to sleep and it did. I woke up the next morning and called my family in Jordan I was so excited to hear all their voices, but deep down inside I was so sad and I felt really bad that they didn’t come with us.

It’s now may of 2017 I am junior in high school and will finally be a senior next year. I have decided to go to Jordan with my mom to go and see family, because I knew next year would be hard considering I need to get ready for college. So here we are again, “welcome to royal jordanian airlines….we hope you enjoy your flight.” I have been through this before and I know the procedure they take before we take off so I put my earphones and listened to some music it was a good song called “jar of hearts” so I jammed to the song before we took off, and it’s that moment again when the airplane engine got louder and louder by the second. “Ready for take off” the Captain yelled and we did. On the plane there was babies all around me crying and crying and crying it was really annoying so I just decided to watch a movie to pass time. We arrived and I was so very excited to see my family. It was amazing I got home and I saw my grandma wearing nice dress and a scarf coming towards me to hug me I started tearing up I was so happy to see her. And then I went over to my grandpa and gave a nice big hug, my grandpa is a smoker so while I was hugging him all I can smell was cigarette breath. I then proceeded to go and say hi to my cousins who have grown so much since I have seen them. I spent 3 full months in Jordan and when time has come to leave I was so so sad. My god I didn’t want to leave Jordan the amazing warm weather the company and my beautiful big family and friends, all the fun memories I have had, I truly didn’t want to leave. But I told myself I have a senior year waiting for me. I have to get back to America. My grandparents were so proud of me for all my accomplishments in school. I cried when I said goodbye to them it was one of the most sad moments I have ever experienced I look over at my beautiful mom she was wearing adidas sweatshirt and pants and some nice Nike shoes so she can be comfortable on the Plane and I said, “are you ready?” She said,”yes let’s go”. And we left to the airport.

Now it’s winter 2018, second semester of senior year and it’s going great. I have been in America for almost 5 years witch is crazy to think about. And now on march of 2018 I am applying for the citizenship. When I apply for the citizenship I can’t leave the country until I get called for the citizenship exam, we were told by my immigration lawyer that we should be prepared to wait 6-9 months until they call us for the exam, and all that’s going through my head is I am not going to see my family in Jordan until about 2 years considering I am going off to college and with citizenship test we really don’t know when they will call us in to take it. It’s been a hell of a journey and it’s been amazing and sad and emotional all at the same time. And the year had come where I finally become a American citizen.