Changes

The main changes we dealt with is the fact that we left from one continent to another. My father always wanted to move to the US, but the irony is, we turned out to live even worse according to him. Since everyone owns their own private property, he often complains that he has nowhere to fish. Nowhere to hike. Nowhere to live. It brought too many tolls on his mental health. Belarus was his Garden of Eden. 

Along with his nagging, I feel as though it affected my attitude towards living here. I would always hear about how it's so much better in Belarus and it would make it harder to appreciate what I have right here. It made me almost believe the fallacies from him, since the appeal from authority would take over and made the world seem worse in Georgia. All the news and admirable people we knew from Belarus would always put out false information or opinions rather than facts.

It definitely shaped my personality to the way it is now. I learned to keep my dad's complaining from affecting my mood and my friendships. Immigrating was the biggest and scariest moment for my family's life, but nothing would be the same if we hadn't made the jump.

Sometimes, I do miss it back home. A whiff of sweet, floral honey, or a taste of a familiar, tangy blackberry jam will bring back my childhood. But, my wish to go back is a thorn, and I see my future elsewhere.