Personal Narrative: My American Dream

I never really got a chance to get to know my Aunt Marilena, seeing that she lived in McLean, Virginia and I almost never saw her. I didn’t really think her life was ever that complicated or rough; her husband (my uncle) is a millionaire, so she never has to worry about anything money related, she’s a stay-at-home mom. I just didn’t really think about it until I sat down to talk to her about her college experiences. We were at my grandpa’s house in Columbus, Ohio, she was there to help him move out, sitting at the dining room table. Hands folded on the table, she looked alert and ready to answer my questions. Her thin, dark brown hair pulled back, I never noticed how short she was until then. I started by asking her name, to which she replied that her name was Marilena Frix. Soon after, I learned that she is a first generation American; both of her parents immigrated to America from Italy. She grew up in the Boston area, and attended Harvard University. Excitedly, and with a smile on her face, she explains that “Harvard was something I couldn’t turn down, it was too good to be true...it was like my dream. I knew that when I applied there and I went there for my interviews, I just had to get in there it was like, …show more content…
“...we lived so close to the campus, we lived about 4 miles or so, they just didn’t understand why I would ever live there.” Due to this, she describes to me how she “...always felt a little bit outside of everybody, just kinda felt like an outsider didn’t have the overnight experiences, didn’t have the roommates, didn’t have to learn about getting along with roommates and negotiating friendships, and study time vs going out time and that kinda thing.” She also told me that she thinks that, because of this, it took her a lot longer to learn those kinds of social