Twenty years ago on this day I boarded a plane in Ethiopia and started my own "Coming to America" story. Actually it was a "Coming back to America" story since I was born in the U.S.A. But I was only there until about age three.
On the day I boarded that plane, I was 16 years old. Today, 20 years on, I look at a picture taken on that day at the airport with me, my family, and friends and I wonder:
- I wonder if I had any clue that it would be 12 years before I'd go back to visit
- I wonder what was going through my parents' minds that day
- I wonder if I had any idea how much the move would strain my family's relationship with me
- I wonder how different my life would be if there had not been the risk of the government picking up kids my age from the streets, putting a rifle in our hands, and sending us to fight in a civil war
- I wonder what happened to the thousands of Ethiopian kids my age who also had to make a similar trip
- I wonder if I had any clue about how interesting the next 20 years would be
Of course it is obvious that I did not have a clue about most of those questions! I was only sixteen after all.
All I cared about was, I was GOING TO AMERICA! The America I had seen in the movies at our friend Nancy's house. I was going to drink Coke out of cans and eat apples. I was going to go to McDonald's. I was going to see the snow.
What an idiot? Can you imagine wanting to see the snow?!!
Anyway, they have been a very interesting 20 years. By most traditional measures they have also been successful years.
As I look back, I can't help but be amazed by how fortunate I have been. I have received at least as much credit as I deserve, if not more, and I have not been blamed for more than I deserve. I realize that I have the best parents possible, a great wife that loves me, and my sisters are not bad either. The sisters are not used to me saying nice things about them, so I have to ease them into it.
So today is a special day for me. It is one of those days that marks a chapter in my life. I tend to think of my life so far as consisting of two parts -- Life Part I: "The Ethiopia Years" & Life Part II: "Coming to America - A 20 year journey."
And now it's on to Life Part III - Whatever that might bring.
