2026 – Gabriel Zurita – Mountain Ridge High School HS

My Journey from Venezuela to the United States.

My name is Gabriel and I am 17 years old. I was born in Venezuela. Life there was really hard, especially when I was a kid. I remember the multiple protests against the government everyday. There were many dangerous situations at each corner. Because of the danger of possibly being armed robbed or just harmed sometimes my dad had to go to work in the middle of the night to stay safe. My mom stayed with us to “protect us” from this danger which in reality all we did was staying home locked up from the outside. We could hear gunshots and people screaming outside sometimes. My mom would put us in a room to keep us safe. Becasue of the multiple protests going on my brother and I had multiples allergies, and the smell of tear gas made it hard to breathe. My mom tried to clean the air for us but there wasn’t much she can do more than just try to blow the air out with a towel.

When my parents decided we should move to the United States, the pandemic started. We spent the whole pandemic in Venezuela. Many times, we had no electricity, no gas, and sometimes no water. I saw my mom was scared, but she tried to be strong for us. One day, we were told we had only 15 days to leave the country. We took the chance and left.

In december 8th of 2020 we arrived in the United States, and I started 7th grade in the winter. I did not know any English, but I believed everything would be okay because inside of me there was always something telling me that everything was going to be ok. When my mom started working, our schedule changed. Every day, she dropped me off at school at least 40 minutes before it opened. It was cold, but we did it together.

Now, I look back and see that everything I went through made me stronger. All those experiences helped me become more capable and ready for my next challenge: life as an adult and the first step is going to be college.