I interviewed Pernilla Royster. She grew up in the south of Sweden. She Immigrated from Sweden to the US when she was 18 years old. She came to the US for a college education. In school, she studied chemistry at Umass Boston and University of Michigan. She already spoke English, however, she was still very nervous about her migration because she did not know anyone in the US. Her parents never immigrated to the US with her, and instead stayed in Sweden. She was on her exchange visa for 15 years. After that expired, she then had a work visa H1B, and then she was finally granted a green card. She was able to get her green card through her spouse, who is a US citizen. She just recently became a US citizen last year in 2022. Even Though she now lives in the US, she still misses parts of Sweden, like the cool summers, black liquorice candy, Swedish holidays, such as midsummer, and most of all her family and friends.
I found Mrs. Royster’s story to be inspirational. It takes a lot of courage to go to a completely different country all alone without your family. She faced many hardships in the beginning, and it was hard for her to make enough money to pay the bills. However she worked hard at “under the table” jobs that paid cash. In addition to babysitting and cleaning houses and bed and breakfast jobs. I believe that her story is proof that sometimes it’s good to go out of your comfort zone, because she did something that she was passionate about, and in the end it paid off.
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