My name is Mahdi. I’m from Afghanistan. I’m 14 years old. When I was just one month I traveled from Afghanistan to Iran. I went to Iran with my father, mother, brother and two sisters. We went to the capital city of Iran. It’s called Tehran. There are many small cities in Tehran. I lived in four cities in Tehran. In Iran, there are three or four languages and one of them is Farsi. I speak Farsi. In Tehran I had many friends. I liked Iran because there are many nice places. Also, old places and statues from history. I left Iran when I was 12 years old. My family and I left Iran to make a better life in another country.
Before we came to the United States we went to Europe to a country called Slovakia. We were there for 6 months. We were in a camp for refugees. There were many other Afghani families who came with us to Slovakia who wanted to go to the United States. There were also many families from Somalia who went to the United States from Slovakia.
In Slovakia I had a teacher who taught me how to speak English. His name was Steven. He was a very nice man. Also he had learned how to speak Farsi. He is my best teacher in my life. I miss him a lot.
After being 6 months in Slovakia and learning English, all the families and I and my family came to the United States. All of us was together in a hotel in New York for one night. After that we separated and everybody went to their states. We came to Oakland, California in 2013 just before Christmas. Now I’m still in Oakland, California for one year and two months. After going to middle school for almost one year, I came to high school in Oakland. Here, I play soccer because I love it and I hope I will become a professional soccer player in the future.