Students leave their country and family to study abroad for a many reasons, ranging from educational pursuits to a personal curiosity in a country to a culture or a family reason. I am one of these students; I left my mother and immigrated to United States so that I can support my mother throughout my life.

I was born in China, Shanghai, in 1984. My parents divorced when I was three years old. My grand parents did not like me very much because I am a female (In Chinese traditions, the male baby is always more important and expected than female baby). After my parents divorced I lived with my mother. My mother worked very hard in order to earn as much money as she could, and she hoped that I would grow healthy, just like other children who have a complete family.  I did not disappoint her, I was a top student in school, and I always helped her with the housework all the time. Almost everybody who knew me liked me very much. We were living a very hard but happy life. In 1999, my father came back from United States, and requested my mother for taking me with him to United States. My mother agreed because she always wished and prayed for my better education and better future. She always wanted that I should complete my education in a better way.

On 17^th November, 1999 I immigrated to United States, and I began to live my life with my father in California. We were strangers to each other at first, I was very shy to talk to my father, but later I tried my best to communicate with him, and now our relationship is much better than before.  Language was the biggest problem that I faced when I came here, and I understood that I have to overcome it, if I want live and study properly. So I studied very hard at school, read books, and watched English videos. I tried many other ways to improve my English skills. In my sophomore year, I was kind of depressed because at that time my English was still not good, and I was not able to express myself well in front of others. I thought myself as useless, and I felt lack of self-confidence, I was very sad about it. But then I realized that I should not have wasted so much time, I should go ahead, and I should better do the actual works to improve my English language skills. So I started to work hard again, I practiced English more and more. I also joined a lot of activities in school, and I was very happy to help others, although my English was not as good as the English of other students, but I was very good at other subjects, such as math and science.

I have learned to be patient, and I always accept and listen to other's advices and ideas. Now I am a senior this year, and I am ready to apply for college education. I am very interested in colleges in New York City. I like this city very much, although the World Trade Center is no more there, I was very upset about it, but still New York is a very nice city. I have not made a final decision about my major yet, I am still thinking about it, but I am quite sure that I will choose business subjects. I like business since I was very young, because my mother did not earn as much money as the others families did, so we always had to be careful, and not to waste money in extra things, calculate and keep the record about the income and how we are going to spend the money. Now I am willing to learn the real business, and I will work as hard as I can at the college, so that I should get a good job in the future, and let both my mother and myself to have a better life, because the main purpose of coming to United States is to make our lives better.