second draft "The Reason I'm Here in the USA"

To be honest, I wasn’t the one who made the decision to be here in USA. It started because of my dad. When I was in ninth grade, my father told me to be prepared to study abroad. When I heard it, I was crushed and I absolutely refused this idea. I couldn’t bare the thought of leaving all my friends and my happy carefree life in Thailand. I had many arguments with my dad all of which were worthless because as the child of an Asian father, who has complete control over the decisions of his children, I had to accept all of his commands. I didn’t understand him at all, I was happy with my life and everything there. I had a goodbye party with my friends, it was sad, everyone was crying because no one wanted me to leave as well. Three days after the party, I was on the plane, on the way to my new life where I’d have nothing.

I started my new life as a sophomore at a boarding school in Boca Raton, Florida. I felt like I was lost in a place that I had no idea about. I was thrown into a situation that was foreign to me. I was brought up around only Asian people and in Boca Raton I was surrounded by white-Americans. At this time, I preferred to only be friends with only Asian people since we have similar cultures. The fact that my school didn’t have many Asian students meant that I had less than ten good friends for 3 years there. Most of my American friends that I made were from the golf team. Furthermore, Florida was the down point in my life this far, I was depressed and I would shut myself in my room for days at a time. The best time in those three years was that during all breaks I had time to go back to Thailand. I would party hard with my friends to escape the depression that I had before. I was a completely different person; I was happy, social, and out going. However, I would still have lots of arguments with my dad because of the same topic, “I don’t want to go back to that place!” However, he replied that I have to be here until I finish my undergraduate degree. In my senior year, I was recruited by the Ohio State University golf coach. She offered me the scholarship then I signed it, which means I committed to play golf for OSU and be here in USA for 4 more years. Again, it was all my dad’s decision.

After experiencing the depression for 3 years, I swore to myself that I have to do something with my life since I didn’t want to be a depressed girl anymore and I can’t change my dads decision. The first thing that came up to my mind was I have to be as the way I’m in Thailand; I have to be social and act to everyone equally. After I got in to the Morrill tower, I started to talk with everyone that I saw. I acted the way I’m in Thailand; it actually works really well. Now I’m friend with everyone on the floor and also many athletes from other sports. I start to go out with my friends every weekend and have fun with them. Now I realized that reasons of being a depressed girl for 3 years were all from myself. Even though my life is really hard at OSU since I’m an athlete –student; I have to workout and practice everyday after classes, but I’m happy now since I have so many friends like I do in Thailand. Since I’m blissful, I started to accept my dad’s idea. Even though, I still don’t understand why he wants me to be here, at least I have a trust in his decision after I realized that I against him because I was unhappy with my life. I was being immature and tried to block a value of my life that is given by a man who has experienced so many things in his life and also promised me that it would be a great benefit to my future life. I really don’t know about what I want to do in the future yet but at least I’m a happy girl now.