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I came to the United States when I was 11 years old. I remember the day I first set foot on American soil as if it were yesterday: May 23, 1991. The oppressive humidity of a Washington D.C. summer made it even more memorable. Ethiopia is a warm country, but I had never experienced such a combination of swamp-like humidity and searing heat before. We stayed in Washington DC for about a month before we moved to Philadelphia where my family and I live now. I arrived in the United States partially by accident. My mother, sisters and I are political refugees who were granted asylum in the United States while Ethiopia was being torn apart by civil war. At first, our family fled to London to stay with a distant cousin of my father’s. During our stay in England, the government of Ethiopia collapsed completely and rebels seized control of the country. It was then that we were given the green light to travel to the United States. My mother, my older sister, and I arrived with the clothes on our backs and less than a thousand dollars. For the next several years, my family struggled in a new country with very little family and fewer resources. Accepting charity and tough circumstances can be a humbling experience. My mother worked as a housekeeper and a nanny to keep the family afloat, and thanks to Catholic family social services, we were able to stay at an affordable apartment at a convent near Philadelphia. I turned 12 that summer; my sister went to school in Bryn Mawr, and I was given the first of many life changing opportunities this country has given me. I was able to enter 7th grade at the Church Farm School, a boarding school for boys in Pennsylvania. Since its founding, the school has opened its doors to the families of boys who may not have otherwise been able to financially afford such a valuable opportunity. Six years later, thanks to need-based financial aid, I was able to attend one of the best research universities in the world – The University of Pennsylvania. During my time at Penn, another event changed my life: I became a citizen of the United States in March 2002.
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