Immigrant Families - My Story

My Name Is Gaia G, and I am part of an immigrant family. Being part of an immigrant family can be super fun, but also very tough. If you don't know my story, here it is:

I was born in Bogota, Colombia, on June 12th, 2006. ( yeah, I know. I'm super young). When I was 40 days old,  my family and I moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil. At the time, I was an only child. Then, while living in Brazil, my mom had one of my three sisters, Luna. She's now in 5th grade. We lived there for about a year, and then my dad moved to California because of work. Since my mom, my sister, and I were not American Citizens, we couldn't actually live there, so we went back and forth between Colombia and California. Then, my dad moved back to Colombia with us and my mom had my second sister, Maia. She's now in 3rd Grade. Then, we lived happily in Colombia, and my mom had my third sister, Kyra. She's now in 1st Grade. When Kyra was two years old, we moved back to Brazil and lived there for about three years. Then, we were preparing to come and live in Portland. Since we had to wait for our Green Cards, (what makes us able to live here), we went to live in Colombia for about 5 months with my grandmother. We still had to go to school, because we couldn't just miss half of the school year. Then, we finally got permission to enter the country, and off we went on our way to PDX. When we got to Portland, the community was very accepting of us, and I like that. I went to West Sylvan Middle School for the rest of 6th Grade and then entered Catlin Gabel School, on September 4th, 2018. Since the beginning of the school year, I have been very happy about the acceptance of this school community, and I'm glad I came to Catlin. Since then, I've met other immigrant families at this school, and I am very supportive and accepting of them as well. By the way, since I have lived in three different countries, I have learned three different languages. Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and I am currently learning French.

Being an immigrant family relates a lot to my story because, as you can tell, moving from place to place about every two years can be stressful, especially with all the stuff that comes with it, like visas, passports, community acceptance, packing up everything in your house, saying goodbye to friends, etc. Here at Catlin Gabel, it is a very different school than what my schools were like in Brazil and Colombia. They have about the same curriculum, but the community and spaces are very different. For example, in Brazil, my school was very, very, "mixed up". What I mean by this is that there were a lot of different cultures, and I promise you, there was at least one person from every continent in the world, even Australia! ( probably not Antartica ) At Catlin, most of the people are American, even though there are some variations as well. Also, the climate is very different, and it takes some time getting used to. For example, this morning, it was the second time seeing snow in my life! In Brazil and in Colombia, it doesn't snow, sadly. In Portland, it is mostly cold, but in Brazil and Colombia, the climates are definitely warmer. However, there are many advantages of being an immigrant family. More specifically about me, it is an advantage to know three languages. Especially because you can know what other people are talking about, and it's nice to know three languages and speak them fluently in general. Another advantage is that you have more stories to tell! Storytelling is a great skill, and I think that it is very underrated. When you travel or live in different countries, you have more stories to tell about that place, and I believe that other people enjoy being told about how things are in a different place, maybe even somewhere across the globe. But what I have learned in my adventures going from place to place, is that no matter where you are, we are all human and a part of the earth.