People Face Challenges example essay topic

People face challenges every day. Without challenges, life would be trite and boring. However, there are different levels of challenges. A challenge could be something as simple as making a decision. It could also be facing and accepting a total change to one's way of life.

When one leaves their country and home for somewhere new, hopes are often high about where one is going. But moving into a different culture and surroundings is a challenge to any person who faces it. Many different types of people have left their homes for someplace new. The Irish, for example, left their homes of religious persecution and starvation to go to America during the mid 1800's, hopeful to start anew. More recently, the Brazilians have immigrated from their country to countless other countries, but mostly to America as well.

A little less of a challenge would be moving to another town, which can be highly stressful, and sometimes does involve meeting and understanding something almost like a new culture. A challenge is to call into question whether one can confront being in a place that is totally new to hom or her, and understand the culture around him or her. The Irish were faced with the challenge not only of moving to a new country, but of dealing with the presuppositions of the Americans, who were mostly Protestant as well. The Irish people left Ireland due to the persecution about their religion from the English. In America, there were many job openings in the railroads and coal mines, and there was also the idea of religious and personal freedom. But the major reason they left was due to the potato famine, in which millions starved.

But in the United States, the Americans resented the Irish, for many Americans were pushed out of jobs by the Irish who would work for less money. Also, the Americans were alarmed by the Catholics, and Americans felt that their culture, religions and backgrounds could not be kept if they were overpowered by the Irish. So many of the Irish lied about their religion, and faced persecution about their nationality when searching for employment. But the Irish people faced this provocation, and many of the people in America are at least partially Irish. They are not, however, the only ethnic group to ever immigrate to the United States. More recently, the Brazilians have been immigrating to the United States due to the low salaries in Brazil, and the potential money to be made in America, facing the challenge of meeting a new culture and not even knowing the language.

While many Brazilians immigrate to places like the United States, England, and Japan, most of them do not know how to speak the language, but have connections with someone already in the country who speaks a little English and knows where the person can get a job. According to the article "The Brazilians Are Coming", the number of Brazilians who have left Brazil between the ages of 20 to 40 is about 1.5 million people. Although many Brazilian people who come to the United States have college degrees or plan to get one, they are illegal immigrants, and thus "the vast majority of the Brazilian immigrants end up working in menial jobs with salaries between $1000 and $2000 a month". ("The Brazilians Are Coming" p 2) The Brazilian people, however, seem to not let that discourage them. Many plan to return to Brazil when they have earned enough money, and also hope to raise their children in a combination of the American and Brazilian cultures. They face their challenge of coming to a new country without speaking the national language fairly well, and many make much more money in the United States than they would in Brazil, thus receiving the desired effect.

One personal challenge of coming to a new place and culture is moving away from the more urban suburbs to the more rural suburbs, not knowing anyone in advance. When I was told that my family was moving to a new town, I did not object, I thought of it more as a challenge to see if I could handle going to a school environment that I had not experienced, almost like a precursor to college. Moving to Charlton from Sudbury almost is like moving to a new culture, in that the school here is incredibly different. I have already learned how to deal with less freedom and more structure in my education. The people are quite different as well. While Lincoln-Sudbury students were very politically charged, it seems like there is almost no political interest in Dudley-Charlton in comparison.

Also, many of the people I seem to be around in Charlton are in credibly different from those at my old school. I have looked at moving as a challenge, and I think I am beginning to overcome it by adjusting and accepting the culture around me, where I am already starting to feel as though I have a place. A challenge can be all sorts of things, and one difficult challenge would be to face a new culture and even language when one leaves home for somewhere new. The Irish people dealt with this back in the mid 1800's, when escaping Ireland and the persecution from the English. The immigrants from Brazil have also dealt with this challenge more recently in the past ten years. I have also done so, but to a lesser scale and with lower stakes at hand.