First Days Project
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  • What's your story?
    The First Days Project shares 594 stories of immigrants' first days in the United States.

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    "It was a date in mid-September, 1957, when the Pan Am round-the-world flight I had caught in Calcutta reached San Francisco."
    READ C.M.'S STORY




    "My first impression was that it looked like a fairy tale... I felt a sense of freedom, though there was both fear and joy in the back of my mind."
    READ SARMISTHA'S STORY




    "And then you come over and then suddenly it's a different environment and you don't have a single friend. I mean zero. Zilch."
    READ ALI'S STORY




    "It was just so sad because I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know what to do... I still was just traumatized by what happened."
    READ DESIRE'S STORY
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    5/28
    First Day
    Chittagong, Bangladesh to Queens, NY (2000)
    4/12
    Naomi Ayoola's First Day
    Nigeria, Nigeria to Durham, NC (2017)
    #1
    First Day
    Chittagong, Bangladesh to Queens, NY (2000)
    #2
    Anwar Mamat's First Day
    Urumqi, China to Dayton, OH (2006)
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