My life is like a highway by Mohamed Yahye (age 16)

My life is like a highway that never stops, never ends. Like me. I am always helpful. I am always busy, and I am always moving like place to place, talking and helping. I help people because when I exit from the highway I am looking friends who need help. I like to be helpful, honest, powerful, hardworking and kind. When I turn on the light, I can see some people on the highway. They come to me and ask me a question. They knew me before and they know I am looking for some friends

My life in Somalia was good. The most important things in my life when I was in my country were friends and family. My family was big. I have 4 brothers, 3 sisters, one brother in law, an aunt, an uncle, and one sister in law. When I was in Somalia, the life was easy because my father was working in a clothing store and my mother was working selling vegetables. I was going to Dugse School to learn the Quran. It wasn’t easy. I had to go 5 days a week.

One of my favorite memories of Somalia is my uncle’s wedding. When my uncle was marrying, it was a big day for me and friends and families. We used three cars that went all around the street. We killed a camel, and we gave some meat to our neighbors. And then we had a dance. When it was over, we all came back after eight days. And we killed one sheep. We made meat for my uncle and his new wife and we said good luck to the two of them.

Another favorite moment was coming to the United States. I was so proud because I was coming to America. My grandmother told me, “Don’t forget who you are. I love you so much. When you go to America have fun and when you come back you will choose one of the best girls in Somalia. I will call you husband and wife.” I will never forget what I heard from her. It was so sweet. My family was proud because everyone wanted to come to America. We were so lucky to come to America. When I came to America, I didn’t have friends because I lost all of them in Somalia and Kenya. I came to Texas and I didn’t have any friends. One month later I started to have some friends and started English. I came to Washington. When I was coming to Washington, it was raining. A month later I spoke English very well. I was lucky to learn English well and have a great future.

When I was in the airplane coming to Texas, I felt hungry. I didn’t know what a hamburger was. I thought the hamburger was made by a bag. I thought the cheese was a yellow paper. I thought the bread was a fur. I thought the juice was blood of animals. I came to Texas at night. I was so proud to come to America. I ate turkey, coffee, and cookies that I never ate before. The next day they gave us a house. I looked around the house everywhere. It was the ugliest the house I ever lived in. On the other hand I thought it was good because it was clean.

Later in Texas, we went to the market as a group of people. We collected the food in our bag because in our country you could pay later. Some people were looking at us. I thought, “Why are they looking at us? Did they never see people shopping?” We were leaving with the food when those people called the police. The police said, “Drop the food.” I thought he was saying keep doing that. They called the interpreters. The interpreters said, “Put down the food” in Somalia. The interpreter said to the police, “they are new in America.” The police said, “no problem.” The police said, “If you have a problem call 911.” The next day we called the police, and we said, “We don’t have salt.” And then the police came to my house. He said, “Don’t ever call the police.”

When we came to Seattle, I went to Chinook School in SeaTac. I felt embarrassed because I didn’t know how to speak English. I felt so bored. After one month, I started to speak little English. I was so proud to speak English well. Finally I came to SBOC, and SBOC changed my life. SBOC taught me math, reading, writing, science, and how to speak well. I will never forget SBOC.

My life is highway. Highways never end, never stop. In my life I have a stop light. Someone is calling at my back and needs help just like always. Before I had two lanes but now I have more than five lanes. Those lanes are my family and friends. It is too much traffic and sometimes I have to go slow down. When I relax, I think I am great, nice, happy, and kind. In the highway I will be successful.