Venous: Yes, I was born in Tehran, Iran.
Me: And what was your first childhood memory there?
Venous: In Iran, I think my first childhood memory was when I broke my arm. I was going up on my aunt’s flight of stairs, and I was being funny. I was playing dress up while climbing the stairs at the same time, so I ended up tripping on the pants. I think that’s my most vivid memory, and I was three years old when this happened. My next memory is just me playing with my cousins, and then after I remember living in Turkey for a little bit. That was when my dad left to get our alien paper work situated, so we could come to America.
Me: So I kind of wanted to talk about the revolutionary war in Iran, so did your parents …show more content…
He died because he did a lot of wood work, and they don’t have the proper equipment over there. After doing wood work for so many years, I guess it just took a toll on him and he eventually passed. My mom’s house actually got bombed during the war. She lost her mom and her older brother. Her sisters were already married, so she was actually raised by her older sisters. She didn’t have a mother figure, and she was lucky enough to be raised by her sisters. Think about the kids that were abandoned and orphaned, because their parents died when ISIS attacked. Thankfully, my mom grew up to be a strong and independent woman. Some people don’t take it that easily. They become very bitter and have a low self-esteem. I feel like with the U.S, we could help those kids but they’re looking at it from a different …show more content…
But I could see that it was hard for my parents, and I knew that I was different from the people that I went to school with. For example, there were times I got in trouble in school, and they would call my parents. But my parents didn’t know what my school was calling them for. My parents didn’t know what they were calling them for so I would just “Oh they were calling just to say that I did really well in school.” But yeah, I didn’t really have to transition much. I know for my mom and my dad it was really hard. My dad didn’t have a job. We didn’t know anyone. My dad had like twenty bucks in his pocket. Like any other immigrant story, with twenty bucks you don’t really have much to come off of. The apartment that we stayed in was actually donated to us from a church. They also donated a bunch of toys and books. My dad would go out, use that money that he had, buy Windex and paper towels to wipe down people’s windows, hoping they would give him money for it. Eventually he met a Persian that told him that he could get a job at this Persian restaurant. My mom didn’t have a license, or know how to speak English. She knew nothing about the culture. She took English classes, so that helped her a lot. She was able to make friends, communicate with people, get her driver’s license, and find a job. So it was harder for them, because of how much older they were, and how much more used to they were to their own culture. They