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When Mawi Asgedom was three years old he fled the war-torn country of Ethiopia with his family. He ended up in a refugee camp in Sudan where he spent three years of his life. In these camps, him and his family heard magnificent stories about a place called America. This, of course, caused them to want to move there. After about a year they were able to immigrate to Chicago, Illinois.
When they arrived in Chicago they lived in a one-room motel room while an immigration office tried to find a church to sponsor them. After that failed, they were moved to the rich suburb of Wheaton, Illinois to see if a church would sponsor them there. They did find a church there and they ended up living in a nice two-story home, which the church paid for most of. But the years ahead of them would be long and hard. Throughout Mawi's life in adolescence and as a teenager, he had to deal with many conflicts that all made his life harder. First of all, all of the kids at the school he went to made fun of how him and his brothers / sisters were black.
Kids would wait after school for him just to beat him up and make fun of him. Another thing that he had to deal with was language. He didnt speak much English, which made it very difficult for him to learn things. Poverty was another thing he had to cope with. Him and his family had to get all of their clothes from a dumpster.
Poverty also led him to stealing. He once found a parking meter and took it off of its hinges with his brother. They tried to open but before they could a police officer found them. They ran all of the way home and they never got caught. After a few years, Mawi learned good English, which allowed him to learn in the classes a lot better. He ended up being an extremely good student who always got straight As.
In his senior year of High school, Mawi received a letter from Harvard University. They were giving him a full scholarship to their school. Mawi went to Harvard and ended up graduating in the top eight of Harvard in 1999. Mawi lives in Chicago to this day. He is twenty-four years old and he is a highly sought-after public speaker.
Mawi Asgedom had a very interesting life from start to finish. I think that he had an incredibly good reason to write this life story. His life really showed a great example of how you can start off with no money and work your way up to someplace great like Harvard University. It was just so interesting how he survived all of the torture he went through. If this were a biography instead of an autobiography I dont think it wouldve been as good. This is because you really could capture the feelings and the integrity of the character.
It still wouldve been a great story if it were a biography but I really got to see the characters life through this. An example of why this is true is all of the times that there father had said not to do something or, You will be lost. The author put this in a tone where you could actually feel it as though it were your own father talking. If an author writing a biography did that you wouldnt be able to capture it as much. Mawi did grow up a little bit bad. He was sometimes mischievous which didnt make his father too happy.
One day his father received the last straw from Mawi. Mawi had kicked his teacher in the private area when the teacher had given him a detention for talking back. Mawi's father gave him a whole lecture on how he should change his ways. Mawi was about twelve when that happened and to this day he is obedient and he definitely isnt mischievous. Mawi's older brother, Tewolde, had once influenced him. On Halloween, one night, Tewolde was planning on bombarding his enemy's house with eggs and firecrackers.
Mawi went out trick-or-treating with him and when they got to his house, Tewolde started throwing eggs at the house. Mawi didnt really want to but his brother called him a wussy. Mawi ended up throwing a few eggs and getting in a lot of trouble by Tewolde's enemy's mother. Mawi had gone through the beginning of his life in America thinking that there was no difference between whites and blacks.
After so many people teased him he began to think differently yet he still thought that most people were indifferent of race. When nobody talked to him or wanted to be around him, he began thinking that he was very different from everyone. Then, one day, his father said, Dont do anything bad. The white people barely get punished for the things we blacks go to jail for. You mustnt think that you can do anything that you want for you can not.
All of those experiences are what made Mawi feel like he was totally separated from everyone else. Mawi lived by a few basic rules. First, dont do anything illegal for in this country, it will stain your name until you die. The elderly must always be treated with the most respect possible.
Family pride is more important than anything else. Sex is not an option until after marriage. Education is how you will survive in the future. What really stuck out to me about this book was how Mawi and his family endured everything that they had to endure. At that refugee camp they sometimes didnt get fed for three days at a time, they slept on dirt, and they endured it all for three whole years! Then they came to America where they lived in poverty for there whole life!
But in the end, through all of the devastation and poverty, Mawi achieved something great. He received a full scholarship to Harvard. A book has never inspired me this much. It really showed how no goal is beyond anyones reach.
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Research essay sample on Harvard University Three Years
