A True Story About American Dream - Commemorate The Ninth Anniversary Of My Immigration To The US

Time really goes fast, and one week from today I'll have been living the City of San Francisco for exactly nine years. For past nine years, I've experienced many highs and lows of my life, downstream and upstream, on the other hand I experienced a lot of grievances and pressure, and I often hear so many gossips from those idlers, sometimes even rumor. Every time when I sit down, I frequently think of the same question: Victor, what do you want to do in the US? Why did you come the US even you'd probably known that you would bear a lot of pressure? The one key question I always ask myself is "What is the price to be an immigrant?" That's why I want share a true story about "Simon" and his family, who was also immigrated to the US from Macau almost 11 years ago. It could be a huge difference for 11 years, but to "Simon" and his family, nothing is more painful than that 11 years, they couldn't even achieve American dream, the only things they have are tragedy and sadness.

Let me talk a little bit about "Simon". He was actually my best friend and classmate when I was in grade school in Macau. His both parents were senior civil servants of the Macau Government. “Simon”, his younger sister and their parents were living happily in Macau as middle class, the family had no worries. In October 1999, in order to provide “Simon” and his sister “better education”, (and that is a very common reason for parents sending their children to other countries) their parents decided to move the whole family to the country they had never been before – United States.

"Simon's" tragic American dream began October 1999. At that time, the entire "Simon's" family arrived to the U.S. soil, they first lived in San Francisco for no more than two weeks, and then they settled in Sacramento. The "Simon" family had never thought their lives in this dream country were so tough, first, the whole family had to rent an old apartment unit near downtown Sacramento, $680 per month, and the living environment was extremely bad, absolutely not suitable for a family of four. Second, "Simon's" parents did not find any job for almost 6 months; the whole family was relied on the money that they brought from Macau. Few months after coming to the U.S., “Simon’s” father got a job as a handyman, however, his wage was extremely low, and that made the lives of the family more difficult.

But the more tragic lives were yet to come. In early 2002, “Simon’s” mother started her own business in Downtown Sacramento, the store sales were pretty good for the first few months, but it was just flash in the pan. The sales started to decline in late 2002, with fewer and fewer people came to her store; but “Simon’s” mother thought that was not big deal, she decided to expand her business. The most fatal blow to “Simon’s” family happened in March 2005, a swindler posed as a businessman and purchased a large quantity of clothes, and “Simon’s” mother was pleasantly surprised and thought that was the opportunity to turn around. What a pity, the god of luck had never been kind to this family. One month after the “businessman’s” purchase, it turned out that person was using fake credit cards, (probably stolen) as a result, all credit card transactions involved with the purchase were denied by the bank. However, a large quantity of clothes had been already shipped to the fraudster, which caused “Simon’s” mother owed a huge amount of debts, and eventually caused her bankruptcy in late 2005. In order to help his mother to repay debts, “Simon’s” father decided to sell all his properties in Macau. The “Simon’s” family became nothing. NOTHING!!!

The whole story has not ended yet. Few months after “Simon’s” mother declared bankruptcy, for some unknown reasons, or may be the sudden change of family; “Simon” had a great change in his temperament. He became manic, unmotivated and low self-esteem, he later was infected with drug addiction, and he couldn’t extricate himself. One day in 2006, “Simon” was searched by police in the street, and found several tablets of ecstasy inside his pockets. He was arrested immediately and later convicted on possession of dangerous drugs, “Simon” served two years of imprisonment, and the future of a promising young man was destroyed.

Last year I met him and he told me that he finished his prison term in late 2008. He also told me that he couldn't find a job because no one would like to hire him, on the other hand, he doesn't possess a college degree, that makes him more difficult to find a job. "Simon", now 24, is still struggling for his life.

The story of “Simon’s” family is that depressing, very depressing. Sometimes I think if they were still living in Macau, they might have stable lives over there… And now, everything in the country is a nightmare to the family, nothing more.

See? That's "Simon's" story about his life in US. For many people, US is a place where they pursuit and achieve American dream, but for "Simon" and his family, American dream is just a horrible nightmare. That's America! Many good stories and bad stories of new immigrants were happening everyday. As an immigrant, there're a lot of challenges that those native born people have never experienced and understood. If you have never been an immigrant, you'll never know how difficult to be an immigrant.

The question pops out in my head again: What is the price as an immigrant?

A Date That I Never Forget - 3

The story about my first night in the US continues here. After we were all cleared at the immigration checkpoint and were issued visas, we approached to the US Customs checkpoint, before we went to the check point, we'd all claimed our checked baggages. We had almost ten baggages, most of them were checked. Almost everything in my house in Macau were in those baggages, crazy! It's the time for the Lei's family to be checked by the US Customs, because we're a family, only one customs declaration form was needed. We got so many huge baggages, so the officer near the screener gestured us to pass the checkpoint, and we were cleared. All we had to do was to turn the customs declaration form to another US Customs official.

"Thank (Sank) you," my mother was speaking broken English. Something funny and embarrassing happened then: when the US Customs officer asked my mother about the declaration form, my mother spoke out a single word, "husband". Of course, the officer didn't understand what my mother said, then she responded, "Who is husband?" My mother actually wanted to tell the officer that the declaration form was on her husband's hand, but she didn't know how to say it in English. It was an obvious case of language barrier, but I was shocked the first language barrier was happened at the airport. Anyway, we officially entered The United States of America new immigrants. We exited from the restricted area, my aunt and uncle were waiting at the arrival lobby in SFO and ready to take us to our new home...

The first night as an immigrant ended with tiredness and stress. But there were even more challenges to come! Watch out, Victor! I'll talk more about what I faced as an immigrant next time.

A Date That I Never Forget - 2

So bad that I almost forgot to continue the story about what happened to me on August 9, 2001… Okay, let me move on.
Around 8:00pm, all of us arrived at the checkpoint for entry inside the SFO restricted area. We all had our Macau passports and four sealed Manila envelopes with some important documents inside. I should mention that those Manila envelopes were issued by the then INS, and the official from the US Consulate in Hong Kong also reminded us not to open those documents, so we had never known what those were. Whatever, there's nothing we want to know, at that moment I just want to know how long it could be finished! It took quite long time to process our first time entry to the United States. The INS official (I don't know if she was the Customs or INS, I can't even distinguish between an USCIS official and a CBP official) finished processing our initial documents for the first entry to the US, then she asked each of us to sign our names on those documents and passport-style photos. Then the INS official stamped on our Macau Passport, indicated that we're legal permanent residents, and we're authorized to work. The stamp also indicated that it should be the legal document to prove the immigration status before Green Cards were issued. Almost an hour later, we were all allowed to enter the US soil. My first time in my life, how's my feeling? I can tell you, nothing but uncomfortable. I had never felt that stress before I came, but something made me not feeling good.
There were also a small incident while we arrived another checkpoint, the US Customs Checkpoint, and I'll continue with my story tomorrow.

A Date That I Never Forget - 1

Sometimes there are some disadvantages for free-style writing, that's also a reason you can't have anything to write if you don't have any topic or idea. Honestly, I think that I write this blog is more difficult than write a 3-page essay, I have a strict topic for essay, but here, I can only write anything I can think of.

Anyway, in order to keep this blog, I have to look at something and think something to write. Looking around my house, glimpsing on the calendar, today is the 10th of July, 2010. It will be a very important day for me on the 9th of next month, which is my anniversary of immigration to the US. For some, August 9 is just a normal calendar day, but to myself, this day is a date that I never forget.

Someone may ask me why I come to the US, honestly, I don't know how to answer this question, but I think everything has positive and negative sides. For the past nine years, I have gained something, but I also have lost a lot of things. When I think it again, I can only do one reaction — sigh.

What happened on the first day in the US? I've already said it's the day I'll never forget, therefore, I still remember any piece of memory of that day. On August9, 2001, my parents, my younger brother and I took the flight from Macau International Airport to the San Francisco International Airport. When the plane landed at the SFO, I asked myself,"is it San Francisco?" Indeed, besides the in-flight announcements and the interactive map shown on the TV screen inside the plane, you can't find an obvious sign to identify yourself has arrived San Francisco. Our flight arrived at SFO around 7:30 pm, about 20 minutes later, we off boarded the plane and proceeded to the path connected to the USCIS / US Customs and Border Protection counter, (these two federal agencies were then called INS and US Customs Service respectively) it's also a path that changed my passion. What happened inside the terminal building? I'll share it tomorrow.