The Ever-changing Life of a Child Immigrant | Mariana Piemiento | TEDxSamfordU
that introduction it was kind of weird being a high school kid not gonna lie but we'll see how it goes and so today I'm really going to be speaking to you guys he mentioned I am from Colombia in our story of how we got here he knew where we lived he knew what time my brother went to swim practice he knew every move we made it was not afraid to come after growing up in meijing Colombia has its fond memories city nicknamed after its eternal spring never cease to amaze with its beauty and its people included exuberant kind in ever so genuine but like a lot of Columbia it has its dark past beginning in the 80s cocaine trafficking became one of the top jobs for many people in Colombia as we know this is very illegal and not okay but by 1983 Colombia's top export was no longer coffee it was cocaine things like Bob does go out soon rose to power in the city with exuberant people was now tainted with the bloodshed of its tears ambition power and fear now in the country our life is really simple I remember going to museums and parks we like to visit people in shelters orphanages and everything in between my favorite hobby was going to a big pirate ship in the mall I don't think it's as big as I remember but i think it was huge and it had endless possibility something my six-year-old mind absolutely loved my mom and dad were in a pretty in appraising business so they would go into houses in you them and they would team up with national banks to go in and help them sell the houses looking back I had a very comfortable life and we lived in a very nice apartment had a housekeeper which seems kind of silly because we were in an apartment but we did we had a very comfortable life but as I began to grow older I begin to learn more about the real fear that we lived in constantly daily bombings weekly shootings and forever knowing if I've done it was going to be safe there is no going out late into certain parts of town and fear that we would die that night there was no peace until the bomb of the day was heard and then it was okay to go out and for us for sure there were certainly no peace after a phone call we received this is my parents built was a business they absolutely adored my dad was an architect very well worded architect and my mom was a fervent a businesswoman it was a business they loved but then everything changed my dad had the job to go out into each house and valued a house a lot of the parts he went into were very tough neighborhoods but he was safe for the most part but it so happened that one of the houses he went into wasn't of an elderly woman now that doesn't sound very threatening we received a phone call and the person on the phone knew everything about us he knew like I said my brothers schedule where we went to school and he wanted to kill my brother and my dad now the man across the phone was the mother of the elderly woman whose house had been taken by the bank and the man across the phone was also a member of one of the biggest cartels amazing Colombia I didn't notice it until really I was holder I'm 18 years old right now and this and when I was six so I didn't realize what was going on when my dad moved from our city for a month and went to hide out with my brother my brother at the time was nine he's now 24 it was difficult my dad was one of the most involved ads in this world if you wanted to go to the park he was going to go to the park with you okay you did everything and for him not being able to be seen with us was incredibly painful it wasn't long before the police and investigation forces were in and were able to track down the collar and that's where everything really began months passed in the situation did not seem to alleviate itself you try to do everything in our power but not being able to be seen with my dad was not a lot of my parents who are willing to live our only resort leave the country sure enough in 2002 my dad moved to Alabama seeking political asylum they told us it would only be a matter of months before we would see him again but if any of you know immigration a couple of months is a couple of years unless time three would have to go and get medicals take in and they would say that's not the doctor we had on the list yet it was right on the list in front of them and going back in pain and forever a pending requests I'm whether we can move to the United States or not my mom became a single mother for two and a half years and in this two and a half years we moved over five times my biggest memory moving to a place ahead about four pools we were pretty awesome yeah that's my biggest memory but it was very difficult as you can imagine for my parents after two years I couldn't believe it was him standing right in front of me my very own dad at the atlanta airport keep in mind i was six years old and I mine couldn't comprehend what was really going on so later that night I diary I wrote I don't really think this is my dad he's really skinny and doesn't have a beard and moved to the u.s. in august of 2004 and agin school estate with Hills Elementary East now imagine becoming suddenly death in mute at the age of six this is exactly what it felt like moving to a foreign country and not knowing the language the one thing I did know that my parents taught me was may I use the restroom a very crucial element to being an elementary school kid ideally moving to United States would solve our problems we were safe now at least physically the problem was our last word radically changed in every sense of the word we quickly and unexpectedly changed everything we went from having a comfortable life tabbing zero we went from having a housekeeper to my mom doing the jobs of a housekeeper you see the United States was a place for safety but not necessarily for normality the parents who are both successful business owners now had to clean offices restrooms work in everything in between that they could work in construction and to this day sometimes they have to resort to those even 11 years later this was not only true for my parents but also for some of my family that moved here two years prior that are actually in the audience today like the stories of many immigrants leaving your country isn't just leaving your belongings it's leaving who you are it's leaving your entire college career that you worked for its leaving your identity imagine some of you doing this right now most of the year at college and in a couple of years you're told you're moving to a different country that you don't speak the language and your college is worth nothing all gone to waste but that's precisely what makes the story of immigrants so incredible making something of absolutely nothing it's what our lives have been challenged by these pastel years going through the phases of my parents being unemployed having to get food stamps and constantly awaiting whether we were going to be okay persevering through the most difficult times when there's a greater outcome in the end I can't say I know when my parents went through or what anyone else has gone through but I know this power is believing believing is power power and believing that whatever you do even small is going to change someone else's life much like an appearance change mine power and believing that the word impossible has I'm possible in it at the age of six I was put in his english as a second language program a program that people that weren't born in the United States are put in to learn English the predicted time was over two years he set myself a goal and had four months I was done with the program you have to believe the power that you have even though it may be insignificant it's going to change the world some way it can be small but it can be as big as you want power and believing that anything is possible if you set your mind to it such as wanting your own magazine Oh in the second semester in your high school career and do a TED talk and still try to graduate power believing that the efforts you make will soon change this world believe in the power of good and believe in the power of change as an immigrant change came very quickly and very unexpectedly but the change that brought hardships so many days made a person who can now stand in front of you unafraid of the future and very unashamed of her chest thank you you