I was born two years before we left our home in Sydney to move to the unknown, Houston, Texas, USA. In Houston, life was like a TV show. Everything seemed as if we were in a sitcom where everything seemed right and in place. The only thing that seemed out of place were my parents. My mother, of Ukrainian and ... Read More »
My father has always loved puzzles, logic, and mathematics, winning many competitions in chess, math, and physics. Stuart Fiske was born in 1964. Because his father was both a lawyer and a farmer he grew up between an apartment in Montreal, Canada, where he went to school, and a beef farm in Ontario. An only son with 4 sisters, he ... Read More »
As a young student in Canada, with no real source of stable income, I have come to value the education system as a way to better the conditions of my life. I’ve just received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta, where I have taken classes targeted toward becoming a teacher, as I am a firm believer in educating ... Read More »
Flipping a switch can have any range of consequences, from turning on a light to launching a rocket. One of the most important switches, for an immigrant like me, is the switch that you flip when the country you live in becomes your home. The action of flipping the switch can be excruciatingly slow, for my husband and I it ... Read More »
“After miles of walking and restless nights, we finally came to a stop.” This is the story of how my dad and my mom had to leave their home. Tonga, a place where there is peace and hardly any violence. People would wake up to the sound of singing birds and a beautiful view of the beach and the sun ... Read More »
“It was like a Hawaii vacation that you would dream of, coming from terrible weather. But it was not a vacation. We were staying.” Growing up in the late 1960s in Edmonton, Alberta, Jay Patrick Kelly Furlong spent winters building campfires, playing ice hockey, riding snowmobiles and shooting cans with rifles in the woods. “We saw extended family much more ... Read More »
Craig was the first of his family to move from New Zealand and live in another country. He knew it was risky, but he was looking for opportunities that he couldn’t find in rural New Zealand. So he packed up all his belongings, which fit into only two suitcases, and left his friends and family behind him on a 6,500 ... Read More »
My cousin arrived with news I no longer wanted to hear about. He told me my visa was approved and that I would be going to Hawaii. I told him I no longer can accept. The house I lived in was built by my Teti (dad). My teti was a sheriff and was very protective over our family. The island ... Read More »
I was darker than most, as were my kids, and had often gone through numerous racial encounters. I had been called ‘nigger’ or ‘bum’ by people who didn’t want to hire me or even by people on the street as I walked by with my children. I was born in Niuatoputapu, Tonga. It’s a small island and one of the ... Read More »
Knowing that I would start a new life, my mind and heart continued to push me forward, making me actually do it while my feet were trying to stop. Which led me to today, knowing that if I had never come here, I would never be who I am right now. My name is Sylvia Wolfgramm and I was born in ... Read More »