In May of 2018, Senior Maneka Liyanage left Sri Lanka to experience life in the United States and realized moving from Sri Lanka to the United States is like moving to a completely new world.

“I was born in Sri Lanka and lived there until I was 13,” Liyanage said. 

The differences between the United States and Sri Lanka were very apparent to Liyanage when she first arrived. People’s mannerisms, the food and even the schools were all so foreign to her. Being an only child, Liyanage only had herself while undergoing these new environmental changes.

“It was most definitely different,” Liyanage said. “But I liked it.”

Liyanage and her family moved to the United States to have a better availability of opportunities for themselves. Sri Lanka didn’t have many colleges, so Liyanage’s parents wanted to make sure she had the chance of receiving the best education at whatever school she chose to go to. Though, before Liyanage could think about college she had other challenges to focus on.

“Speaking English was hard because I was shy,” Liyanage said. “But junior year up to now I’ve started to get more social and made a lot of friends.”

At first, it was hard for Liyanage to adjust to her new surroundings. To improve her English, she read a lot of books to help familiarize herself with the language. Once she got more comfortable, Liyanage was able to slowly leave her comfort zone. Different clubs offered at school like HOSA and NHS made it easy for Liyanage to break out of her comfort zone and become more confident and make new friends. The move has taught Liyanage multiple lessons that she continues to use today.

“I learned that the difficult experiences you go through can help you later on,” Liyanage said.