She packed up her bags long ago and moved 1500 miles away from home. She has been here 20 years now and she refuses to leave. She hasn’t looked back since.

She came to America to get an education, to go to college, and eventually become a pharmacist. She’s accomplished all that and more. Despite that she probably would have gone back a long time ago if it were not for me. She loved her Jamaica; she still does but she is not going to go back anytime soon. She stayed here too long. She had to stay because I did not want to leave. I was raised here and I became attached, so when she was ready to leave I did not want to go. As far as I am concerned I am American and my mother would not dare separate me because she understand that in spite of all the grievances I have with this country I still love it almost as much as she loved her Jamaica.

Now she claims that she will go back to Jamaica one day yet she has not set a date. Every new milestone in my life marks a new date in which she says she is going back. However she never does. I know she is still here because of me. She wants the best for me and she knows that means staying here, in a country that was not originally hers with a child who identifies with that country. America is where she achieved her dreams and she says she wants the same for me. I believe her. How can I not believe her with all she has sacrificed so that I can have a good life? I owe her a lot and I will one day repay her: I just do not know how.