The Letter

2020 5th & 6th Grade Prose Honorable Mention

Step by step, he walks on the cracked pavement. The sun’s hiding behind the clouds today. Not a single speck of blue fills the sky. A bell rings as he opens the small door to the building on the corner of the block. He walks into the post office, passing by shelves filled with paper, approaching the front desk. This next moment will decide his whole future, every single thing about it. Living In a small neighborhood, he picked fruits from a tree in his backyard. This is the place he grew up. He never travels anywhere far, except to Moscow occasionally to get rare food, like bananas and other sweet things. He goes to a small school in the center of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He knows that there is somewhere else where he can have a better life than he is having now. Somewhere he can go... A place like America.

At the age of fifteen, he decided he wanted to immigrate from Russia to America, all by himself. He didn’t want to bring his parents, partly because he didn't want to bother them, but also because he wanted to be independent. He knew that if he really were to go to America, he would need to speak and understand English. He started taking English classes in his free time after school. Learning as much English as he could, he managed to grab a few jobs to make money. He would translate important documents from Russian to English and earn money at the same time. He soon realized that he would also need a specialty. He came up with three options: a truck driver, since he’d always admired big cars; a truck repairman, as he wanted to be able to fix trucks for other people; or a computer technician, since his absolute dream job was to fix computers, as well as other electronics. He decided he should have multiple options. The rest of his free time, he signed up for more after school classes and jobs. He took the most difficult computer course that he could find, and he did well, while at the same time he also took classes on how to fix and drive a car.

Four years later, when he was almost nineteen years old, he decided to start the long, hard process of getting out of Russia and going to America. If the process failed, it would be as if the last four years were wasted. The first step was to get permission to go to America. He had to head to Moscow. On the long train ride, he rehearsed what he would mention in his interview. He was going to be asked multiple questions: Why he wanted to go to America, what job he was looking to get, and many more. Although the interview was sure to be challenging, he was determined.

He arrived at the door of the US embassy, an old building from the Cold War that looked like a fortress.This was it. He was about to get interviewed. He didn’t know what to expect. Then, the questions started. “Why do you want to go to America?” “I want to build a new life.” “What do you plan to do there?” When the interview was over, he
wasn’t sure how he did. Months later, he was told that the letter saying if he had passed the interview or not had arrived.

Heart pounding, he starts his long walk to the post office. Opening the door is complete torture. He asks the concierge at the front desk if he can please have his mail. The man looks at him and says there isn’t any letter for him, explaining that it was stolen.This is horrible news. He knows there is a letter, but how can he make the man give it to him? There is only one solution: Bribery.

After bribing the man with $50, which is a lot of the money he has, he is given the letter. Slowly he rips off the envelope and pulls out the thin piece of paper. He skims through the words and looks at the bottom of the page. His work hasn’t been for nothing.

The process of getting out of Russia is difficult. He is robbed of $100 and only has $50 when he finally gets to America, but it is worth it. Once in America, he gets a job fixing computers. He is so excited, because this is his dream job. Now he can rest easy. He’s gotten to America.

If my father hadn’t pushed so hard for his dream, I would not be able to have the life that I’m having right now. I think that my father was extremely brave to leave his homeland at such a young age all alone, and to stand up for himself when he was facing government officials. I admire that he put so much effort into trying to get to America, without knowing if he was going to make it. Bravery to me is what my father did. He never gave up, even when times were tough. You don’t need a sword to be brave .You just need to believe in yourself.