EXCERPTS:
THE OPPORTUNITY
ALWAYS ARRIVES ON
TIME BUT ALWAYS
ASKS FOR SOME
CHANGES
EDILBERTO ALMENDAREZ
VOCABULARY
I am originally from
Honduras, the 3rd child in
a marriage that produced
4 children. I was born in a
small village dedicated to
agriculture. I remember the
house in the middle of that
coffee farm and the closest
school to my house was
more than an hour away.
We did not have things such
as electricity, television,
videogames, or other things
that others had; in my house
things like love, discipline,
the word of God and the
support of my parents were
never lacking. Even though
my parents did not finish
elementary school, they were
always willing to educate us
and prepare us for life.
When I turned 6 years of
age, my parents came to
find out that I had certain
abilities such as memorizing
verses from the Bible so they
decided to send me off to
live with my uncle who lived
closer to a better school,
which was about 5 hours on
horseback from my parents’
house. I finished elemen-
tary school but there was no
middle school so I had to
go farther away. At times, I
imagined myself going to the
university one day, getting a
job and helping my family
and some close friends.
By the time I was 15
years of age, my parents
were going through a diffi-
cult economic situation so
I could not continue study-
ing. In the middle of certain
problems that we were going
through, I ended up coming
to the United States with my
older brother who decided
to bring me with him. For
better or worse, he could not
reach his destination but I
managed to get here without
any problem. My first years
in the United States were not
easy because I did not have
family, friends, or people
whom I knew but in time I
adapted to the system.
...For the first few weeks,
I traveled every day from
Baltimore to Washington
while I found a place to live
and at the same time asked
everybody if they knew a
cheap and close room for
rent. One day I was grab-
bing a cup of coffee and
asked some people at the
table about a room for rent.
One guy told me something
about a room that was close
to my job at a good price
and after a few months
looking, I finally found the
place I wanted.
A few months later in
January of 2017, I tried
to enroll at Carlos Rosario
to get my GED and learn
English but I didn’t have my
proof of DC residence. I
was completely determined
to obtain my GED diploma
so I bought the books and
started to study myself. With
the help of those books and
YouTube, every month I took
the test and finally got my
GED diploma in May 2017.
The following semester I
was prepared to enroll at
Carlos Rosario and while I
was the first one in the regis-
tration line that day, I didn’t
win the lottery and honestly
I was frustrated. Luckily,
someone called me saying
that I was on the waiting list
but that they had space at
other times, so without think-
ing twice I answered that YES
and that semester I went to
Vocabulary in the morning
and Level 8 in the afternoon.
At the same time, I was
preparing to have everything
ready to enroll in college for
the next semester.
Thanks be to God in the
first place because He has
opened doors when we are
determined in our dreams.
Thanks to Carlos Rosario
for the opportunity to be
one of your students. Carlos
Rosario, you gave me a
hand in learning English
and in being prepared for
college.
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