The Journey to America
I interviewed a good friend of mine, Oladipo Toriola goes by Dipo, about his move from Lagos, Nigeria to California, America. Dipo is 19 years old and has only recently moved to America by himself without his family. He has only lived in America for only 1 and a half years. He spent majority of his life and was raised in Lagos, Nigeria. I question and discuss with him his journey, his goals and his transformation in America.
Table of Contents
1. Why America? California?
2. Who Benefitted More?
2. Who Benefitted More?
3. Old Plans and New Plans
4. The Big Move
5. Plans After School
6. Challenges Faced
7. Information about America
8. What Could've Been Done
1. Why America? California?
After high school he had several options ready for him to continue his life in Nigeria. But he was ambitious and wanted more leading him to move to America. America was the place to go if anyone wanted to seek out a world class education as Dipo described. The main reason why it was America to begin with was because of the language barrier that existed between him and other countries whereas America, everyone spoke english. And English was taught in early years of education in Nigeria because it was a British colony in the past. His first choice was Germany where education was free but due to the language barrier America was his next best option. I narrowed it down even more by asking him why California. He had someone telling him that there was a college called Skyline College located in San Bruno, California that provided fairly cheap education. On top of that he heard about Silicon Valley and how California was a huge and thriving tech industry along with prestigious schools such as Berkeley and Stanford that are the top of the top in engineering. And because he wants to become an engineer (discussed in the 2nd segment of this blog) it heavily influenced him to come to California.
2. Who Benefitted More?
Both him and his family seemed to have gotten the most out of moving to a new country. Dipo is getting the education he wanted and his mother is happy that he is able to grow in the comfortable environment of America whereas Nigeria's environment was very discouraging because of the limited options that were given there and it had constrained many from achieving their goals. Unlike America where "sky's the limit".
3. Old Plans and New Plans
Dipo would have became an accountant if he had stayed in Nigeria but his passion for being an engineer heavily dictated his plans in moving to America and his future plans in America. But as he's living his life here, his plans continue to constantly change but with education and being an engineer still in mind.
He briefly goes over how if he had no choice but to stay he would stay try to go to college and become an engineer and get a job as soon as possible as Lagos, Nigeria's openings for jobs are very rare. He didn't have much regrets except for his native food as there was no Nigerian food around.
4. The Big Move
One of the hardest part of moving out was saying goodbye to family who have been with you for all your life up to this party of Dipo's life. Dipo had an older brother that had already left home and moved to America and helped his transition into America a lot smoother. The reason why he moved to America by himself and not with his family was because his family had much more to lose if they came with him. As for him adjusting to the culture, he said it was very natural because of the lack of a language barrier allowing him to communicate with other people and being able to take advantage of what America had to offer.
5. Plans After School
He's not too fond of achieving the stereotypical American dream. He will continue to make goals after achieving his education. One factor that plays into achieving his goals is taking a risk. He discusses how moving to America and leaving his home was already a huge risk by leaving his comfort zone. So he would take full advantage of any opportunity America had to offer that isn't present back in Nigeria. These factors dictate how he plans his goals after achieving his education.
I also asked him really briefly where he would see himself in 5-10 years, he has huge ambitions and goals. He emphasizes how limitless his goals are and hints that majority of his goals are engineering related displaying things he would like to build. The fact that America offers and provides so many opportunities heavily dictates and pushes Dipo to dream big and plan big.
6. Challenges Faced
The biggest problem he had faced prior to moving was finding a home to live in. He received help from the director of the international student program who made the process simple. From there he had met with agencies that interviewed him and interviewed the family he would be staying with and see if they were compatible. In addition, money was an issue as well, Dipo being an immigrant here in America, found it difficult to find a job. He receives most of his finances through financial aid, scholarships and his family from back home. Because of his limited resource for money, he spends it very wisely and only for the necessities.
7. Information about America
He explains that media played a huge role in providing him with information about America. It showed him how their lifestyle was and what the streets, highways and cities of America looked like. He believed that the characters he watched in shows and movies portrayed and average life of a citizen of America. Getting jobs, telling stories of triumph, and most importantly the theme of opportunity all sent messages about America through the media. That's how he learned that America would provide more opportunities than anywhere else. I myself learned that the reason why Dipo was heavily influenced by American media was because there were barely any medias produced by Nigeria. America media constantly poured throughout Nigeria while local Nigeria channels would pop up from time to time. The main reason why was because of the strength of the content and stories that were being broadcasted. America has much better access to channels around the world because of the quality of their content and because of that almost everyone would love to see that rather than their own local produced media.
8. What Could've Been Done
He discusses how there were some things that could've helped better prepare for the big move to a whole other country and lifestyle. He could've learned better english to weaken the language barrier. He would've like to have find a host family that was more compatible and easier for him to assimilate with. His host family are Filipino and this huge gap in culture proved it so. The reason for these wishes of more preparation was because he believed he was rushed into moving to America. After he finished high school he wasn't too sure what he was going to do next but the opportunity to go to America presented itself to him by surprise and he wasted no time to seize it.
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