Sandy

AGE 18

Hi. My name is Sandy. I have four brothers. I was born in Iraq on the 19th of January. I left Iraq when I was nine years old, and I went to Syria to start a new life with my family. It was so hard for me because I left my country and all my cousins and my family there. I didn’t have a bad life in Iraq but we left because of what was happening there.

I was so young when we moved to Syria. After one year I went to school and I was in Year 6. The school was not good at all. It wasn’t the teachers but the students – all Syrian citizens – who we got a lot of bullying and shit words from, just because we were Iraqi. I studied Arabic and I was good in school. I had friends but they were Iraqi, just like I am. School was hard in Syria – I mean studying a new language – and there was no one to help me and I just felt alone.

After that I got good marks and I went to high school. I was so happy then because I had learnt a new language and I had new friends.

After one year back in Syria my family was accepted to come to Australia. I was so happy to hear that from my dad. I was happy and sad at the same time because I knew I was going to come here and would have to start a new life again and I’d have to meet new people and go to a new school. And the important thing would be to learn a new language, which I’d already found so hard in Syria. I was sad because I was going to leave my friends and the country I’d loved living in for five years. In Syria I’d been to two camps: one camp was for two days and we went to the beach; the other one was for six days. I had so much fun in Syria. I had my best days there. I remember every single day in Syria with every single girlfriend, all the people I knew and all the places.

The hardest thing that happened to me was saying goodbye to all my friends. That was so hard for me because I knew when I left Syria to go to Australia I wouldn’t see my friends there again.

I came to Australia on the 13th of February. I was fifteen years old. When I came out of the Australian airport all my family were waiting for us. It was the best feeling. I was so happy. After that we went to my grandfather’s house. It was at night. I ate and I slept straight away. It was school holidays so I stayed at home all of the time but people came over. Every day was a fun day. After that I went to school at the Intensive English Centre (IEC). It wasn’t hard for me because all the students and even the teachers spoke Arabic, so it was good. I stayed in IEC for one year and I learned a little bit of English. After that I went into Year 10 at high school. That part of my life in Australia was so hard because the people in IEC were not like the high-school people. The IEC people were so nice and they understood you but the high-school students were just damn crazy people. For example, if you spoke one word wrong they bullied you, which I hated. Anyway, I finished Year 10 and 11 and I’m in Year 12, the last year for me in high-school life. I know how to speak and how to help new people and I’m living my life in my second country, Australia.

I love you, Australia!

Thank God for everything.