En immigrants rejse til New York i 1850

I went school in Denmark and moved to New York in 1850. At that time I was thinking it will be hard to settle in because of my race. However this was not the case. I was more scared of leaving my friends and move to a new country. My parents and I should immigrants to America because, we are not rich and my parents need a job one can live by. We were going to the train, but before we were allowed to going aboard, we should first be checked and that we had some serious diseases. When we were all checked it was time for departure. The journey lasted for several days. I was dizzy and I should throw up all the time and I was so hungry. We were given two water bottles for adults and one for children, plus a few cans of tuna and corn.

The light of the moon was our only ally. I do not know if it's just my imagination, but I have never seen the moon as bright as I saw it on those nights. I remember that one warm evening when we started driving across the border. The silence of the desert warned us of the danger we faced, and we knew we had to be very careful. My parents advised me not to stray away from them. The minutes passed like hours and we didn't seem to be getting anywhere. We quickly ran out of water and food. The only thing we found was an irrigation canal in the middle of the desert. We could hear barking dogs and the mooing of cows, as if there was a farm nearby. Everybody started to fill their bottles with water from that river. The train stopped sometimes by a river. Three days later, we finally arrived in Arizona. By the time we arrived, many of us had our feet full of sores, and many of us were also dehydrated. From Arizona, we traveled to Los Angeles by car. Nine people squeezed into a car meant for four. Upon arriving to Los Angeles, we caught a train to New York, which became my new home. The tears began to run. I really missed Denmark and my friends. While I stood and cried on the train, there was a man who said “The pain is not on the day of missing our dear ones. The pain is really when you live without them and with their presence in your mind.” I said nothing. Next stop was New York City. I was sad but somehow also excited to see the new place, the new home and get some new friends. My arrival in New York City was a different experience. We walked past many houses and the last house was the house we should live in. The house was fine. We all sat down on the couch and we all began to say “We will never stop dreaming that one day we can be a real family, together, all of us laughing and talking, loving and understanding, not looking at the past but only to the future.”