Dhiren Patel

                                                                                              When I Came to the U.S.A.

  It was hard; one man was pinning me; he was huge strong so I couldn't get up.  I was on the wresting team in the high school.  It was hard to get in, but I knew that I would do it.  I tried for that and I got in.  I fought that match.  I lost that match.  Later, on I was on the varsity wrestling team.  I won five matches.  It was amazing.  In India when I was young, like ten years old, I saw so many wrestling matches on T.V. and it was amazing.  From that time, my mind was moving to wrestling.  I decided when I grew up, I would join the wrestling team.  Now I am touching my goal.  My dream came true.  I love these Kinds of sports.  It is over for this school year, but I will try again next time.
  It was snowing outisde.  In India I hadn't seen snow and I saw it for the first time when I came to the U.S.A. in 1997.  I had to change two planes.  I had never been on a plane before, so this was my first experience.  It was a good experiece.  When I came to the airport, the weather was so different from India.
  In the U.S.A., I worked for the first time.  It was amazing and interesting.  It was pretty hard because at that time I didn't know very much English; after four or five months I knew a little bit of English.  I did cashier work during summer vacation.  I worked because I wanted to buy a computer and my parents didn't have enough money for that, so I had to work.
  I had three weeks to plan for my high school.  I was nervous.  Finally, I got in the high school.  The first day in high school it was so difficult.  During that time I didn't know what to do, which way my classes were, but later on I got everything I needed to know.  I was learning many things in high school.  I made many friends in high school.  I saw many different students like white students, black students, different country's students like African, Korean, Chinese, Italian and Mexicans.  I saw that all these people have their different language, and different cultures.  All other country's people have different personalities, like they walk differently and they speak English differently, but one thing is common in high school: every one has to speak Englsih.
  During the three weeks of planning for my high school, I went to so many different stores.  It was different than in India, but I was better.  In India there were no big stores like in U.S.A.  In the U.S.A., the stores have different sections like a food section, a drink section, a milk section, but in India it's different.  It is all mixed together.  It was confusing too.  In India, the schools are also different thatn in the U.S.A.  In the U.S., students have to switch classes--all the teachers have to do it.  India is different from the U.S.A. like in stores, schools, in education and colleges.
  I came to the U.S.A. for a good education because I heard that from some of my friends, my cousins, and everybody in my family.  My future goal is to be a computer engineer.  I hope I will be successful for my goal.  This was my biggest change in my life when I came to U.S.A.


                                                                                                                                    The End


                                                                                                                              Student Writing


                                                                                                                                ESL Class Of


                                                                                                                                  1998-1999


                                                                                                                              Mrs. Krag, editor