I had arrived from Italy. I was living in Sheepshead, Brooklyn NY, and attending Brooklyn College in the days they were filming Welcome Back Kotter with John Travolta. I was working at Lamston’s, a former popular convenience store. One morning, on my way to work, I found my very first ten dollar bill on the street. Finding that free money felt good and I took it as an omen of good things to come. I knew I was in the right place: the U.S.A., my new home, after having left family and friends behind, for good. Lucky for me, I had learned English in middle and high school in Italy. At times, I found overwhelming being bombarded with English everywhere I went: school, work, church, night clubs, movie theaters, and television. It was like learning how to swim when you’re thrown into the water and you have no other alternative: swim or drown. Nothing scared me back then, nothing scares me now. College, a job and dating took care of my loneliness and my youth. I dated a lot and I mingled with different nationalities. It didn’t take long before I said “I do!” at Saint Stanislaw Koska Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to my very own Polish princess, Diane. Three kids later and working two jobs, Diane and I were living in Holmdel NJ, and we still live, a good neighborhood to raise kids. Time is a man made entity, but never the less, it moves ahead at super speed. It seemed I was a teenager yesterday and woke up today a man with wife, kids, job responsibilities, a house, and a dog. When I look in the mirror while shaving in the morning, I see a familiar smiling face, just somehow older. It’s still I! The kid in me has never gone away. The flair for living and having fun is well rooted in me. I love to mingle with people and make them smile in the neighborhood, on the job, and on the express bus to NYC from and to work. My communication skills have brought me success as an IT consultant, a writer and a poet. Every day unfolds a new beginning. I am happy my home is the Land of the Brave. I am brave, too, facing new challenges every day, setting new goals and bring them to fruition. They also say one has to work hard and smart if he or she wants to achieve the American dream. I am where I belong! I am where God wants me to be! I am in a great country forged in the blood and struggles of numerous generations – America the Beautiful!