In the year 2012, was the first time I visited my home country Bangladesh, after leaving from there and settling here in New York at the year of 2008. I don’t quite remember how I spent my vacation there during that time, but just recently I went back to visit Bangladesh after ten years. I went back to visit my country on December of 2021. My parents and my sister went with me as well. Being able to see my family again after ten years is something I will never forget. All of my Uncles, Aunties, and my cousins are there, so it was something very emotional for me. I was able to stay there for at least a month, but I was originally supposed to come back to New York sooner. I got to stay a little longer than I was supposed to, because my covid test result came in positive the day before my flight. So I was able to stay there for a week until my test result came in negative. I obviously wasn’t able to go anywhere that week, so it didn’t really make much of a difference whether I got to stay there for a month or not.

We landed in Bangladesh at 31st night of December, but only few of my family members knew that we were coming this soon and only my dad side of the family knew that we were coming on the fourth of January, since one of my cousins birthday is in January 1st, so our plan was to surprise him. So after we got our luggage’s and our bags, one of my uncle came to pick us up who knew that we were coming this early. We went straight to my cousins house who’s birthday is in few hours and who has no idea that we are going to his house. When we got there, he was the one to open the door and his reaction was the best. He was in a complete shock. That day was not only special for him, but also for me as well, because I got to spend time with my family after so many years.

The night of January 1st was when we threw a birthday party for my cousin, and other family members started to come through and their reaction to seeing us is something I can’t forget. It was very emotional for me when I got to see my aunties, uncles, and my cousins again after so long. I can say that I was more emotional than my parents and my sister, because the last time my parents went to Bangladesh was during 2016 and the last time my sister went was in 2018.

Even though I got to stay in Bangladesh for only a month after ten years. I was still able to spend it well with my family. I remember when my family took us to this city in Bangladesh called Mawa during midnight. We had a little get together at this restaurant there and their food was really good. On our way there, I found it a little sketchy, while there were no cars on the road even though it was midnight, but I at least expected one or two cars. Regardless of that, my cousins and I started bumping to music in the car on our way there, which was a lot of fun. One of my older cousin is a Navy officer and they had this huge gym, where we played all sorts of sports like cricket, badminton, basketball, and ping pong which I really enjoyed playing with my cousins. I also can’t forget about how my older cousin who’s a Navy officer took me to this military museum which is something very special to me because my grandfather was in the Navy as well and getting to see all the military stuff and learning few things about it was very interesting. I can say after ten years, I’m very glad to start of my 2022 by visiting my home country and getting to spend time with my family.