NYC - H
Love it! It's a huge city, dirty, rude, a hard city to live in in so many ways, but I think that's what I like about it. It's what makes me feel...comfortable. I felt very comfortable there.
We met an interesting fellow on our way to the airport, our cab driver actually. He's a Turkish immigrant that left his country 5 years ago to seek better opportunity in the States. (Sound familiar?) The thing is, he left a pretty good job in Turkey and his wife who begged him not to go. She's unable to join him for at least another several months b/c her green card is taking forever. He thinks the processing may go a little bit more quickly once he becomes an American citizen.
What really impressed me are his second thoughts about his decision. He came looking for opportunity but all he found was hardship. He works 6 maybe 7 days a week driving around the city for 12 hours a day for what probably seems like pennies as a New Yorker. He's been separated from his wife for a few years now and sees her every 6 months. They don't have kids yet b/c it just isn't practical since they aren't together. This isn't what he imagined. Sometimes he thinks he made a mistake, but he's past the point of no return. He said he had a good job in Turkey, but he left it and can't go back. So, now he thinks that perhaps his children will have it better than he. That's the only hope he really has.
This is such a familiar story, very much like my parents' story although not in the details but in their dashed hopes for opportunity and prosperity in this country. Their actual experience didn't quite match their hopes. In some ways I mind b/c their experience is meshed with mine and for the same reason I embrace it and count myself privileged to have such experiences inform my perspective. My life is so far removed from what I grew up knowing, and I've in fact tried to run from it and leave all the bitterness of that past behind. I find myself most comfortable when I'm amidst it though, when everyone around you knows that life is hard and you just have to suck it up and deal.
We met an interesting fellow on our way to the airport, our cab driver actually. He's a Turkish immigrant that left his country 5 years ago to seek better opportunity in the States. (Sound familiar?) The thing is, he left a pretty good job in Turkey and his wife who begged him not to go. She's unable to join him for at least another several months b/c her green card is taking forever. He thinks the processing may go a little bit more quickly once he becomes an American citizen.
What really impressed me are his second thoughts about his decision. He came looking for opportunity but all he found was hardship. He works 6 maybe 7 days a week driving around the city for 12 hours a day for what probably seems like pennies as a New Yorker. He's been separated from his wife for a few years now and sees her every 6 months. They don't have kids yet b/c it just isn't practical since they aren't together. This isn't what he imagined. Sometimes he thinks he made a mistake, but he's past the point of no return. He said he had a good job in Turkey, but he left it and can't go back. So, now he thinks that perhaps his children will have it better than he. That's the only hope he really has.
This is such a familiar story, very much like my parents' story although not in the details but in their dashed hopes for opportunity and prosperity in this country. Their actual experience didn't quite match their hopes. In some ways I mind b/c their experience is meshed with mine and for the same reason I embrace it and count myself privileged to have such experiences inform my perspective. My life is so far removed from what I grew up knowing, and I've in fact tried to run from it and leave all the bitterness of that past behind. I find myself most comfortable when I'm amidst it though, when everyone around you knows that life is hard and you just have to suck it up and deal.
posted by haed at 10:54 AM
3 Comments:
i hear the same thing from cab drivers here in MN all the time. we have a large east african contingent in this city driving taxis. apparently, it's much easier for immigrants to find work here, which is why they all flock over here. and the cost of living is considerably lower here than in bigger cities. i can't imagine trying to make a living, let alone prospering, driving a cab in nyc though. but obviously it can be done.
did u thank him? maybe you should call your parents and thanks them. i dunno, maybe he needed a little encouragement and you could have said, well, my parents were very similar to you and they had a hard life but they sacrificed everything for their children, and now look at me. i have a great life and i even have the financial freedom to be able to afford a nice vacation to new york.
or maybe u should call your parents and thank them. that'd be a weird conversation tho.
diva
I think I did tell the cab driver about me and my parents a little bit and that things would be good for his kids. As for thanking my parents... that's a nice thought.
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