A Long Journey

 Souleymane Diallo

ESL 100-EC 

March 22, 2023 

A Long Journey 

    My father is of Senegalese origin from Guinea which is a country located in theWestern part of Africa. Guinea got its independence in 1958 and had a dictator as its first president. That governor actually was behaving in an autocratic way. In fact, that is the reason why their country doesn’t have a good economic status, so a lot of people needed to leave the country for a better life. My father was among those who left the country. The fact that my father decided to leave was the turning point that changed his life and many other people’s lives from my family as well.

    My father arrived in Senegal a long time ago in order to have a better life than the one he used to have in Guinea. At the beginning, it was a little bit hard for him because he was not able to speak Wolof, which is the language that is spoken in Senegal. Moreover, he didn’t have a penny with him he was basically in the middle of a desert without any provisions. Everything he had at that point was his survival instinct and an amazing woman by his side, which is my mother. Fortunately, he ended up working as a tailor and succeeded in that path. A couple of years later, all that hard work and pain started to pay off. From that moment, a new life had begun for him.

    As soon as my father started to earn money, the first thing he did was to open his own business and had my mother as a mannequin for him. Everything was good because he started becoming famous for his skills across the country. He also used to be one of the greatest in the tailor field and used to make costumes for many famous people like Youssou Ndour, who is a world wide singer. Traveling around the world was one of my father’s biggest dreams, and his job allowed him that opportunity because he was traveling a lot for business as well. There was really no way for him not to keep succeeding and this is one of the values that he transmitted to my siblings and I. That success didn’t only change my father’s life but it changed a whole family’s life.

    Being humble is one of the biggest lessons that my father taught my siblings and I and from his experience. Growing up, I had never encountered any problem such as lack of food or any kind of supplies that a child might need. Of course, I was not a spoiled child though. I had received a good education and went to the best school in Senegal. In addition, it is a privilege for me to be my father’s son because I was able to get clothes from one of the best tailors in Senegal and for free. Even though I didn’t have any worries about life, my father taught me values that would lead me to success. Those lessons from my father are things that will always stick in my mind and those moral values are better than money. Things like that are some of the benefits that my siblings and I had from my father. He also helped a lot of people on the other side of my family to succeed by finding jobs for them and providing support for them.

    In conclusion, the fact that my father moved to Senegal impacted his life positively. He changed his life because he had dreams and fought for them. His success has affected many people in different ways because some people have financially benefited from that, and some other people have morally benefited from it. I can’t thank my father enough for what he has done for my whole family, and I will always be grateful for that. These values transmitted to us are paying off and they will always be beneficial for us. That is the reason why those values are more important than money because these values are going to stay with me forever.