The first day when I came to New York my dad told me that you are reborn. You are in the world’s best country here you can achieve anything. You just have to work hard and stay on your track. Nobody will ever try to cut you or try to be a hurdle in your progress. It will be all you if you can’t do something that means you are missing something or you are doing it wrong. Therefore just be yourself work hard to achieve something then step back put someone else ahead and help them. I remember a moment that happened in my life back in 2004 and changing my thinking about Education.

 

I was hiding under a bunk. God save me, I won’t do it again. However,  Oh my God this is the best banana I’ve ever eaten. It tastes like heaven. I was six years old going home from school. I was very hungry and I knew that there was no food at home because there was no money. As I walked down the street I saw a man selling bananas and oranges. When I saw the bananas,  the taste of the banana came into my mouth. But when I put my hand in my pocket, there was no money. My pants pocket was ripped from inside. I knew that I didn’t have money. But the way I was looking at the banana was the same as if I was looking at a beautiful girl. I wasn’t able to take my eyes off the banana, the banana seemed to be calling me, saying “come eat me, I know you are hungry.”

 My family and I were financially poor. Now I was hiding and I ate the banana. I was still hungry. I went to my home and hid under the bed. My mom asked me, “what happened, are you ok?”  I didn’t answer. I was a hungry 6 years old who didn’t know what to do when you are damn hungry. At night a man knocked at the door. He called my dad’s name, Ali. My dad opened the door and said “Greetings”.  After that,  the man complained to my dad about me, saying  “Your son stole my banana.”   My dad was silent, the man said insulting things to my dad. I was inside listening to their conversation, cursing myself and regretting what I had done. After the man left,  my dad came into the room and started beating me.  I was badly battered, my bones hurt the whole week. The very next morning my dad came into the room and told me he loved me and took me to the farm. While we were there, he told me why he beat me last night. He told me how hard he works. He told me he was depressed and worried about the future and that he wanted to send his children to the best school but he couldn’t, due to our poverty. He said poverty taught him a lot.  He said, “Right now I am poor, I know people who want me to do well. I also know people who would wish to see me struggle forever. He said that poor people who have people around them who care are the luckiest. Poverty makes you work harder; it forces you to do any kind of work you can find, as long as it helps you to survive.”  That day I learned a lot from my dad. I had seen my dad working very hard in the hot summer and the freezing winter without a sweater on and that day I understood that if you get an education you could work in a cool room in the summer and a warm room in the winter. 

The older I get, the more I realize that I have to work hard. From that day on, almost every day I wake up and ask myself what I am going to do with my future. Whenever I try to answer that question, suddenly I see the boy hiding under the bed and praying that God saves him. I promise myself every day that I will do what I must to achieve my goals. 

Some day, I want to go back to my city where I committed that innocent mistake, find a boy whose family is poor like mine was, and help that family. Therefore getting an Education means a lot to me.