Penny Ongwenyi on Immigration to America
So many people come to my inbox to ask me how they can come to America.
I keep telling them I came to America on a student visa 30 years ago it took me 14 years to get permanent residency and in all those years I was not able to leave USA.
I missed my father’s funeral,my 5 siblings funerals, my niece funeral and my nephew’s funeral.
I accepted that I had no control given i was not able to travel.
I went through LONELINESS for years until I found friends on Facebook that I could relate to.
I had people around me but we did not have much in common I was raised in the village the Kenyans around me were raised in the city including my husband.
I have walked alone for many years am my own company.
In 2012 I went into self employed that made my loneliness worse most of the time am talking to my merchandise and once a week to my customers who are total strangers my return customers who earn me my 80% of the money I make have found a friend in me and I have found a friend in them.
To be successful in anything you are going to have alot of alone time and it can be depressing and that explains why celebrities will tell you financial success is not everything but most poor people will tell you let them find out themselves.
We have so many immigrants who have perished in this USA some are deep in alcohol and drugs some are depressed, some are mentally unstable, some are so broke they can’t afford a home and yet their family members are asking them for money,some don’t have working papers the list is long!
We have lost many because there was no one to save them to support them they gave up till they lost their lives….then you will hear their family members from Kenya saying gaki he should have told us he had nothing (especially men) how can he tell his family he has nothing when they keep asking for money?
I can write a book on the challenges I faced as a 19 year old student in America and our son that’s 6 hours away in college has a similar story he’s lonely he can’t find a community that he can relate to!
I used to think once I got my green card I will be thriving because I did not have it,I looked at people that came with green cards like do you know what you have?
We had a few Kenyans that were born here taken to Kenya and then came back to college we wished we were them!!
In all the grass in not always greener on the other side all that energy you are using to try and come to America especially if you are 25 years + can be channeled into something very productive.
I know so many people in Kenya who are thriving and many are self employed but they don’t partake in the bread of online idleness they are so busy with their businesses.
Let me pen down and go back to what pays me…but I want people to know I don’t have a way to help people come to America my story is a story of so many challenges it’s the reason I really lost empathy because I have gone through so much that what I know am my only support system and definitely a very supportive born city husband who I credit for where my business is now💪🏿
PTSD-Is real and if you don’t believe me ask people who have lived a war…I have close friends from Sierra Leone and Liberia and I can tell you you can go through so much suffering that you start thanking God you are alive!
Most people think I don’t care no am a survivor I chose to read books over getting drunk I chose to travel within USA over smoking weed I chose to garden over sitting down with people who had nothing good to say but criticize me and my journey has not been easy living in America don’t forget the America food is something new I still don’t eat pizza cheese ham etc…the struggle is real and that’s my am unapologetically living my life!
Don’t give up trying regardless of where you are in the world!
The road to success is extremely lonely 💔
🗣Are we together family and friends 🎤