Colors of America: 5th Grade Immigration Essay

Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the installation dinner of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in San Jose, California. Part of the program. Part of the program included the reading of the top five essays by local 5th graders who entered AILA’s Creative Immigration Writing Contest. One essay stood out to me:

The Colors of America
by Austin Wang

There was once a dull little city named Greyland. The people there were all the same. The same grey outfits, boring personalities, and rule filled culture. However, no one could change it because it was law that everyone in Greyland had to be the same. The people slinked by like forgotten, lonely shadows. None of them had hopes, dreams, or creativity. The city was a sink hole of dark depression.

Then one day came along a young boy named Billy. He was different, his clothes were colorful and so was his attitude. He bounced joyfully down the street, spreading happiness wherever he went. One brave little gray kid came up to Billy and said “Why are you so different?”

“There’s nothing wrong with different” Billy shrugged.

“Well, there is in this city, different isn’t allowed” a group of people said together.

Billy smiled and said, “Follow me and I’ll show you what you’ve been missing out on.” He gestured towards a boat docked a few blocks away. So, they snuck over to the boat and boarded. “Let’s go!” Billy yelled and they were off. Many of the grey people were unsure of coming with Billy, but it was too late now. After sailing for several weeks on the bright blue ocean, they finally arrived at a place called America. “Wow, look at all those different people” someone yelled.

“Look at all those colors!”

“There are some cool and different cultures!”

“Everyone’s so free!” Everyone was amazed and smiling, but then one little kid asked, “Is different good, how can people mix so well?” Billy’s face split into a grin and he produced a sheet of paper from his pocket. Then, he gave each person a paintbrush and a different color. “Now everyone, add your color to the paper”, he instructed. Everyone did it with strange looks on their face. Then they exclaimed, “It looks really great!”

“See, every color adds a little something special, and they blend so well. This is like America, everyone adding their own little touch to the big picture and what is that big picture?”

“Everyone is different in America!” they exclaimed. Soon the little grey people became different too. They became different colors and their personalities changed as they realized what a great thing it was to be different. Afterwards there was merry white, wild red, mysterious black, shy brown, creative green, cool blue, optimistic purple, and silly yellow. Next, they picked up their painting and made it into a picture of America, with many different colors, all mixed together. “America was different and mixed, but different is good” they all thought as they made their way into America as immigrants.

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