It was a cold winter night in St Petersburg 2008, Tatiana (name changed) was around 30 and had 2 children, still working her night shift in her pharmacy to earn enough to pay for all the life necessities during the cold Russian winter. She then received a interesting phone call. It came from her father residing in the United States. They talked for a while, and he invited her to join him in United States and to move into his large house. It was a hard decision for Tatiana to stay in her home country with the rest of her family and friends or to move to a strange and unfamiliar place with the promise of a better life but with little connections and friends, which she decided to first consult about with her family. They concluded that it would be nicer to live in the United States and raise a family there than in her hometown. In Russia many things were very difficult and life overall was harsh and often dangerous, which led to Tatiana and her family to decide to immigrate out of there.
So then around a month later Tatiana and her children requested all the necessary forms and documentation required to come to the United States. For many years Tatiana and her kids waited to be able to get a visa and all the other documentation required to enter the United States and buy a ticket and come to the united states. 8 years later they finally got called into office and received their visas and other documents and now they could finally immigrate to the United States.
When she first arrived in America after her extremely long and hard trip “I arrived by plane with my family, the trip was long and very hard definitely not something fun but worth in the long run” “Had to spend an entire day 24 hours going from airports to airports” right there in the airport it already felt like a completely different world. Instantly, while only had interacted with very few people in America she already felt like it was a place with extremely positive and humane people not at all like where she came from.
The first few months shaped her views on people and different culture significantly. Tatiana felt many differences in the way of life and the different people from where she moved to Salt lake city, Utah compared to St Petersburg Russia. Her first impressions of United States after living here for a few months were “You can fall all the way to the very deep bottom in America and be able to come back from that, but in Russia once you fall all the way down to being full broke and homeless you are not getting out of that”. She saw much opportunity and good qualities in life of immigrant from Russia.
While just starting off her life in America, Tatiana went and got herself an American education and wanted the same for her children. One of the main reasons they moved to the United States was “Freedom, opportunities and financial stability” “Being able to finally have a hobby that doesn’t require to provide something out of it and can just be for personal health and entertainment” said Tatiana. Top of the most important things was to get a greater education for her children in America than you could receive in Russia although it was a tougher challenge in United States because of the vastly overpriced cost of American education and the huge debts the United States make children take upon themselves that are not able to receive funds help from their family or colleges.
When asked about how Tatiana saw her life in Russia and in America after she really felt the life of America after living here for a couple years she said “Life is much easier in the United States since laws here and made to be followed and there are and in Russia laws are meant to be broken. It is also much safer In the united states than in Russia”. The safety of America really surprised her since she never really felt that during her life in the Russian federation.
After living in Utah, Tatiana then decided it was a better decision to move herself and her family to Palo Alto, California. The life in California was very enjoyable and in some ways better than her previous home place with family. Now she had moved away and was more alone than before with only her children and no other family with her. But after getting acclimated to life in Palo Alto when asked about if it was all worth it in the end the immigration process and life in a new country Tatiana said, “I think it was the most possible correct choice” “Life is much better in the United states would definitely not migrate back”.
The entire long process that the family had to go through to relocate to the United states was a worthwhile endeavor. It left the family and Tatiana much better off financially, mentally and physically safer. America definitely removed a large part of stress over general safety from the life in Russia where you could go out for a walk at night through a playground and you could get jumped and robbed or even worse.
Written by the son of Tatiana. He is a student in Palo Alto, California.