It was my first day of school in America. I was so excited to not only be going to school for the first time in America but also because this was my first day in 5th Grade. I woke up extra early to select which clothes I would wear and what hairstyle to do because I wanted to make a first good impression. I was already about a month and a week behind because the school year started early September and I arrived to the US in the middle of October. I was scared that I would be behind and it would be extremely hard to catch up , I later came to the hard realization that I was right, catching up wasn’t going to be easy. On my first day I was escorted to class by my homeroom teacher Miss Meany which is ironic because she was actually one of the nicest and most caring teachers I have ever had. When I walked into the classroom for the first time I couldn’t help but admire the room. My homeroom was painted green and white. There were Halloween decorations all of the classroom because it was almost halloween. The student desks where positioned in groups of 4. The teachers desk was at the corner of the classroom and the white board was in front. Although I had hoped that it wouldn’t  be so hard for me to catch up I was wrong.  I went from learning “Religious and moral education” which was my history class in Ghana to learning about lewis and clark and the westward expansion. I Had absolutely no idea what was going on, I knew nothing about US history only that Barack Obama was president at the time , I also knew that I would have  to work twice as hard as everyone else if I wanted to catch up.

I was put Into ESL(English language learner). I was confused and angry as to why my school had put me into the ESL program when English was my first language and I spoke English at my school in Ghana. But I was placed with people who had trouble forming a sentence when I had no problem with speaking, reading or writing. I never needed to be in the ESL program but they must have just placed me there because I was a transfer student coming from another country and I had an accent. I eventually got out of the ESL program because I excelled in all the tests I was given for speaking, reading and writing in English. But I still struggled in subjects such as Math and literature. science was my favorite subject so it wasn’t as hard for me to catch up. I often had to go to tutoring and ask for extra help from my teachers and eventually I began to start doing well in all my classes.