Coming to America

Unlike Eddie Murphy who came to America to find a bride and also from a royal family, My coming to America is a totally different story. In this blog post, you will read about my journey to America and how it has impacted my life.

Hi, my name is Roland .F. Bundor, born and raised in Liberia, West Africa. My journey to America is a heartwarming story for me and my family. You see, I'm the last child of my mom and the second last child of my dad, so leaving them to come to America was hard but worth it. In the "Coming to America" movie starring Eddie Murphy, he came from a royal family and was on a quest to find a bride. That is not my story. Unlike Eddie, I'm from a poor family, lived in a mud house, had no running water or 24-hour electric city. My journey to America was in search of a better life, a life I saw on TV, like a beautiful home, a happy family, nice cars, and most of all, picking money from trees. So, leaving behind the hardship and struggle of poverty was my only option.

On November 4, 2009, I flew from Liberia to Brussels and landed at JFK airport around noon. It was an all-night trip that took about twenty-five hours of flight time. When I got to New York, I couldn't believe my eyes, seeing the Statue of Liberty, skyscrapers, and lots of white people, I knew I made it. My cousin and her husband picked me up from the airport and we drove to New Jersey, where she lives. We went out to eat a few hours later at the Golden Correl a restaurant/buffet. When we walked in, there were so many people and the place smelled so good. I felt like I was in food heaven. I'd never seen so much food in my life. My cousin's husband was like, "grab a plate, and eat whatever you want." Really? I said. Do you mean I can serve myself? He looked at me and smiled. I knew then I was going to suffer from food poisoning. I took a plate, walked up to the food display with a big smile on my face and I felt like I was walking into the gates of heaven. I could hear Angelic kinds of music and felt the lights shining down on my face as I filled my plate with chicken thighs, stakes, and fruits with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was a good size plate, I sat down to eat and the rest was history. To sum up this experience, I had a good day and spend a lot of time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. That was my first day living in the USA.

Fast forward to two months later, I got my social security number and my state Id. It was time to start looking for a job. I applied to a company that manufactures heat and cold furnaces in Hamilton NJ called Trane. Fortunately for me, I was hired and I started my first job as a line assembler. After a month of working at Trane, I had to leave and move to Philadelphia, PA due to some unfortunate situations. Nonetheless, life must go on. So I moved to Philadelphia with a friend of a family, and little did I come to realize that I was moving into a Liberian base community. I felt at home and even got an under-the-table job at one of the biggest Liberian grocery stores in Philadelphia called The Waterside Market. I work there for over a year why looking for a more stable job. In 2012, I was hired at the Philadelphia international airport by a contractor company that handles American Airlines cargo called WFS: Worldwide Flight Services. This was when my life begin to unfold. I work for WFS for about five years in Philadelphia and took a job opening in Buffalo NY as a station manager for WFS in September 2017 where I currently reside. I love Buffalo. Although it's not much to do in Buffalo but its less crowded and friendly people. No wonder why its call the City of Friendly neighbors.

I actually begin to start living the American dream when I moved to Buffalo. I had my own apartment, a car, and a good job that I really liked. Everything was looking good. A few years later, I needed companionship, so I sign up on Bumble. Bumble is a dating app, if you were wondering what it is. The good thing about Bumble is that, when you're matched with somebody as a guy, you don't reach out to her first. The app is set up in a way that your match (female) or the woman reaches out first. I was instantly matched with my current girlfriend, partner, lover, and now my son's mother, Meghan. Bumble hooked me up. After a couple of days, she (Meghan) reached out, and ever since, we've been together. We moved in, bought a house, and made a beautiful baby boy and we are working together to build a more consistent American dream and take our relationship to the next level.