When I set out to write an article about myself, I struggled. Not because I didn’t know anything about myself, more so because I didn’t know how to tell my story in a way that would be interesting. Then I remembered some of the questions my teacher asked when brainstorming and I have decided to do the five most frequent things I get asked when people learn I am adopted.

I hope this answers a lot of questions.

1) Where were you adopted? I was adopted from a tiny little village in Kampala, Uganda in East Africa and is right above the equator. It is home to about 44 million people and is well known for its Lake Victoria which is the biggest freshwater lake in Africa. To learn more about Uganda, visit this link.
2) How old were you when you were adopted? So, not a lot was known at the time of my adoption. My birth mother had supposedly walked away from my birth father and all the officials could go based off of was my teeth. So according to that, I was five years old at the time of my adoption. My birthday exactly is unknown so my adoptive parents gave me the birthday of May 13th.
3) Did you speak another language before being adopted? The national language of Uganda is Swahali, so I’m guessing that’s what I spoke. I definitely didn’t speak English and that was not helpful for my adoptive parents when I caught Malaria during the adoption process. Like a lot of things about my life before five, I don’t remember much about being sick. Once I moved to the United States and started school, I did have to go to a lot of speech therapists just to help me out.
4) Is that why you’re older than a lot of people in your grade? Although it’s true that I turned 18 my junior year, me being adopted isn’t the sole reason. Because I didn’t know English when I first came to the US, my parents decided it would be best if I didn’t start Kindergarten in August of 2010 when I was already five. I waited a year to start and was able to have real world experiences and learn the language by tagging along with my mom to her work.
5) Do you ever want to go back? I think some day I would love to go back just to visit and see the country. I don’t remember much from it and I know from statistics I have been given a chance at a better life.

This story has defined me all of my life and for the longest time I didn’t really like sharing it. I now realize I have an incredible story to tell and there’s always fun ways to tell it. Also, it looks great on college applications!