Lost in Two Worlds by Mohammed

Lost in Two Worlds by Mohammed - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

Without a doubt, the book that has most significantly influenced my life is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I remember first reading this novel in my tenth grade English class. I was feeling down and depressed and this novel was exactly what I needed to raise my spirits. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, whose whole life changes after a series of drastic decisions are made. The story is set against a backdrop of chaotic events, from the fall of Afghanistan’s monarchy through the Soviet military intervention, the migration of refugees to the United States, and the upsurge of the Taliban regime. While the subject matter previously described can seem quite heavy, I found the story to be very inspiring and familiar.
I was originally born in Tangail, Bangladesh on January 9, 1999. Growing up there, I had a happy life with a lot of love from my family and friends. My father owned a successful restaurant and we were a fairly well-off family. Even with the life we had, my parents wanted better for my brother and I. The education system was not very good in Bangladesh and my parents wanted us to go to good colleges and become doctors or engineers. So around 2005, my parents, brother and I moved to Lynn, Massachusetts. Being only six years old, I was very confused at the time and went along with whatever they told me to do. My parents got jobs as convenient store clerks and my brother and I focused on school. Life became much different and I adjusted to it very good in the beginning. Making friends became easy since we were all trying to learn English. I was having a lot of fun and did not have many worries. My life in general was going very good and I was truly happy. All of this eerily matches Amir’s move to the United States. When Afghanistan became an unsatisfactory place to live, he and his father moved to the United States for better opportunities. The father who was once a successful businessman in his home country had to take a job as gas station worker. Amir took time to adjust to his new life and focused his time to working hard in high school and college to become a writer which is exactly what I wished to be.
After four years of living in the U.S., my family and I finally went back to Bangladesh to visit family and friends. Unfortunately for my family and myself, I had forgotten a lot of things about the country. Since I spent so much time speaking English at school and at home with my brother, I had forgotten a lot of my native language, Bangla. This made it difficult to communicate for a while and I was teased about it by my family. Friends that I had in school I could not remember one bit. Awkwardness best describes my relationship with my home country at the time. My experience of visiting my homeland, matches up with Amir going back to his homeland of Afghanistan after many years of being away. Amir felt like a tourist who did not know how anything functioned anymore. He felt ashamed about losing contact with his heritage and wished to change that by correcting the mistakes of his youth.
Coming back to America after that changed my perspective on many things. This drastic change made me ask many questions to myself about my present and future. I started to realize the reality of my situation. I wondered if could achieve the happiness I wanted. I desired to be with my close friends and family in the county that I was originally from. Reading The Kite Runner gave me hope in a difficult time in my life. It introduced me to a character like Amir that I could closely relate to, sympathize with and desire to be more like. While he is only fictional, he has left a huge impact on me. Since the time I read the novel, I have grown and learned to make the best of things. I want to pursue happiness just like Amir did.