Student Publishing Program ::

Soun Sheen

From Fishers To Lexington

I have moved a lot the past few years just by myself. Not being with my family was not new to me, because I started to live with host families ever since I was in the eighth grade. I came to the United States when I was in seventh grade with my family, but we were supposed to go back to Korea in a year. Then I thought about how my life would be if I went back to Korea. Korean schools are very tough: either you do very well, or you don’t do very well. In order to do very well, the daily schedule is basically eat, go to school, go to after-school classes, do homework, go to bed for about three hours, then go back to school. I didn’t think I could manage that, so I made a decision to study in the United States, and my parents were more than willing to support my decision.

My parents both left the United States when I was in eighth grade. Since then, I have always lived with a host family except for breaks when I go back to Korea. Moving from Korea to Indiana wasn’t too hard because I had my family whenever I needed their help. Living with the other people is very hard, especially if they are mean. My first host-family seemed really nice at first, but all they wanted was money. They asked my parents for crazy amounts of money in order for me to stay; however, my parents thought the money wasn’t very important if I was getting work done.

After two years of living with them, I couldn’t handle living with them anymore. I told my parents I wanted to get out of that house and go somewhere far from where they are. I came to a decision to go to the Webb Academy in California. Then, my mom had told me another option: going to Lexington. My mom had a very close friend in Lexington who offered my mom a place for me to stay. I didn’t want to deal with living with the others anymore, but I always wanted to go to college somewhere east. My parents and I both trusted my new host-family since we were friends ever since I was three.

Moving to Massachusetts from Indiana was pretty easy because I was eager to get out of the house I was staying in. I was supposed to go to a private school near Lexington, but since I had the citizenship, Lexington Public High School was another option for me. I decided to try Lexington High School, because I heard that LHS has very strong education system.

Being at the new school with new people is very hard for me. For the first few weeks, I missed my life in Indiana with my friends. Indiana is a land-locked state, so many of us had private jets to go somewhere we needed to go. There was a lake right by the school, so we would go to waterskiing or tubing during weekends when the weather was nice. I missed having my driver’s license and my car. I had to give up my car and my license because I was too young to drive in Massachusetts. I also missed going on a jet to go to malls in Michigan with my friends. But on the other side, I was very happy that I didn’t have to live with my old host-family anymore. I love going to the town center. I met very nice people here in Lexington, including my new host-family. Even though I still miss my friends in Indiana very much, I love being here at Lexington as well.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS, LHS CLASS OF 2009 EDITION]