I liked my life a lot
Radha Duque BurbanO
University of Cincinnati
“It's me when I was six years old. It was this famous park called Pigeons’ Park. And I love feeding pigeons. And they love my peanuts. So one of them was just jumping on my chest. And I was kind of like laughing and screaming at the same time.
“It was a Saturday. My mom used to take me to the library to read some books. And after that, I asked her if we can go to the Pigeons’ Park.
“It reminds me my childhood, because it was very good. I loved those years. And I feel like now, kids don’t make those memories because they're just on their phone, or want to do things that grown people do when they're just five, six years old. So I really enjoyed my life.
“My childhood was hard. I'm not lying, but I had very good moments. I liked my life a lot.
“Colombia is just beautiful. And the people, the country in general is very good. And when I came here, I mean, this is a very good opportunity for me because I learned English. I could have done so many things that I didn't do in Colombia because of the government. But I still miss things that I haven't done here because it's not possible.
“I feel like most of the people here don't even know where Colombia is. They think that we're poor, and we don't have any internet. They don't even always speak Spanish. So I'm like, that's kind of true. But even though you're poor, you can still be happy in your life.”
Read Radha’s Illustrated Memoir, The Beginning of Everything.
Buy The Beginning of Everything for $7.99.