A Journey to America

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By Liam Pohl
Stonehill News Blog Staff

RANDOLPH— Andrej Orzeszyna decided to leave his home country of Poland in 1995 at the age of 18 to live in the United States to seek better life opportunities.
“I was looking for the American dream, a good job, a house, wife and kids,” he said. 
In the 20th century, over one million Polish immigrants have legally moved to the United States according to the Library of Congress. 
Orzeszyna was lucky enough to be successful in school, and was able to move to the United States on a student visa. Moving to America would help him avoid the rise in socialism, and the high taxes Poland was facing. 
He was very young with little traveling experience, and he only knew one person in America, his brother. They were the only two in their family with the opportunity to come to America in the 90s. 
Orzeszyna landed in New York after a ten-hour plane ride. His first goal after landing was getting to his school and learning the English language. 
He studied at the International English School in Manhattan. 
“It was very easy for me to fit in because I was young, and to be honest it wasn’t hard. It only took me seven months to learn the language,” he said. 
His greatest challenge when moving here was paying to be here. He had to pay $1000 a week for school and his apartment. To help pay for school, he said he worked small jobs here, and his brother was working on a fishing boat sending him money. 
Orzeszyna said when he first moved here, it was tough to balance work, school, and social life.
He said after learning English, life was just like going to any other university. With the help of his brother, his friends he made, and the connections he made from his jobs, day-to-day life was very easy, he said.
When the rest of his family was able to move to America in 2004, he moved from New York to Massachusetts to be closer to his family. Being here for nine years already, Orzeszyna was able to help his family translate, and helped them reach out and find jobs.
He left New York with a college degree, world experience, and experience in construction. After he moved to Massachusetts, he started his own construction company, AQ Remodeling.
His company works out of Boston and they build apartments. Despite having a successful company, he said his greatest accomplishment is his family. 
He said his American dream would not be complete without a good family. He proudly has a wife and one son, a successful company, and a nice house. He says that he achieved everything he came here for and he is a proud American citizen now. 
The process of becoming a citizen was not difficult, just time consuming, he said. He said he supports strong border laws and believes that immigrants should seek legal routes to citizenship.  
“I was lucky enough to achieve my view of the American Dream. I wish nothing but the best for anyone else who has that same dream I had,” Orzeszyna said. 

Comments

  1. Stonehill News BlogDecember 6, 2019 at 9:35 AM

    Very interesting topic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 6, 2019 at 9:41 AM

    Nice job

    ReplyDelete
  3. bridgetDecember 6, 2019 at 9:43 AM

    very interesting topic and good video

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jake ZabskiDecember 6, 2019 at 9:44 AM

    I'm half Polish so this was really cool to read.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dan TrimbleDecember 6, 2019 at 10:04 AM

    My grandparents came over to America from Germany in the 1950s. It's fascinating to hear the perspective of someone who immigrated more recently.

    ReplyDelete

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