داستان کوتاه انگلیسی

Escaping a Revolution to Find the “American Dream” (part3)

What experiences or memories stick out to you from those early years in the U.S.?

It was New Year’s Eve when we first landed in the states. We arrived in Edin, Oklahoma, where I had a cousin. This was my first impression of America. It was dark out as they drove us out of the small town into a really rural area. I was looking around trying to find those high-rises I associated with America, and was pretty surprised to see it wasn’t as interesting as I thought. There was nothing.
I remember the next day after I arrived, it must’ve been New Year’s day, my cousin drove me to see his business and get acquainted with the work I’d be doing. When he drove out, I kept looking out the window, and all I could see was flat farmland, even some tumbleweeds blowing across the deserted highway. There was nothing.

I remember asking, “This is America?”. It took me a while to learn that we were in the middle of rural Oklahoma. It was a small town, you could go from one end to the other in twenty minutes. It was very depressing. So from that point on, I wanted to get out and actually see America. The America that I came so far to see.

At any point did you consider going back to Iran?

I was living in Northern California with cousin Mo. It’d only been three or four months. And one night I came home, I used to walk from the convenience store I worked at to his house, and my car wasn’t there, I guessed he had taken it out. The next morning, a police officer and the building’s manager knocked on the door and asked me, “Who are you?” I answered that I was Mo’s cousin.
They said that he was in an accident the night before and he passed away. So, there I was, all by myself, with nothing. It took me a while to recover from this, with nowhere to go, I had nobody in the United States. So I wanted to go back to Iran. Then I told myself, I’m gonna try a little longer, I came all the way here. I’m going to stay awhile and see what happens.

How did you end up owning your own business and establishing the life you have now?

After my cousin died, I met a guy who was buying and selling cars from his house. He would put an ad in the newspaper and people would show up to his house. I had saved some money from Iran and started doing the same thing with him. So we used to buy cars from auctions and fix/sell them at the house for some extra money. Then after a while we had enough money to rent a lot and start a used car lot. I did that for a bit with a couple partners, but realized I really didn’t like having to be dishonest with customers. They would lie and sell people cars that weren’t good, and at one point I had enough, I couldn’t do that anymore. That’s when I decided I was going to work for myself.


For a short while, I worked for a guy in his painting company, eventually became his foreman and started making good money. After a few years working there, it was maybe 1991, I got my contractor’s license and started my own company. I hired helpers and started working all around the Bay Area. That’s the business I’ve built to this day and it’s what’s given me this life in America.


What did/does the phrase ‘American Dream’ mean to you? What feelings does it evoke and has its meaning changed for you at all?


It hasn’t changed. The American Dream is, you can do anything you want in this country, as long as you follow the law and work for it, it’s available. Plus, there is a lot of freedom in general that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. That’s the dream people have: to come here, be a part of this nation, live here, work here, and be free. There are a lot of things we take for granted in this country that are unimaginable in other places. The American Dream means freedom, that’s basically what it is.

Source: http://madeintoamerica.org