19 year-old Mariam Saghatelyan is from the US, California. She is in her homeland Armenia over 5 years. Mariam moved out of the country with her family when she was 5, but as her parents love their homeland too much, they moved back to Armenia.
“It was very different than what I was used to. I felt like I was in another world because I had never seen this part of it before”, says Mariam.
As Mariam says, she was shocked of these differences. First, when she stepped out of the Airport, she saw so many homeless people begging for money, that she made up her mind of Armenia being a poverty-stricken country. On the way home from the Airport, she was scared for her life in the taxi. The driving was awful. Each day she would find something new that bothered her.
“I didn’t like going out because it felt like people were going to a funeral, dressed in black, with sad expressions on their faces”.
19 year-old Mariam Saghatelyan is from the US, California. She is in her homeland Armenia over 5 years. Mariam moved out of the country with her family when she was 5, but as her parents love their homeland too much, they moved back to Armenia.
“It was very different than what I was used to. I felt like I was in another world because I had never seen this part of it before”, says Mariam.
As Mariam says, she was shocked of these differences. First, when she stepped out of the Airport, she saw so many homeless people begging for money, that she made up her mind of Armenia being a poverty-stricken country. On the way home from the Airport, she was scared for her life in the taxi. The driving was awful. Each day she would find something new that bothered her.
“I didn’t like going out because it felt like people were going to a funeral, dressed in black, with sad expressions on their faces”.
Slowly, as the time went by, Mariam got used to all these and started to love it. Now, she is studying in Yerevan State Linguistic University. She’s met a lot of wonderful people here, and it makes her love Armenia. She loves the nature, the land of her ancestors who have left this legacy. She loves that she can call it her own. “I can’t generalize and say that there are some things I like about our people and things I don’t. History has made people the way they are. Change is always possible, and any change is good”.
Mariam wants to stay in Armenia and not to leave for the US, because here in Armenia there is so much to be done. “I feel like I would be more useful here than in the US”. Mariam thinks there are too many problems in Armenia, and we must start solving them. One of the problems is education, another one is the poor state of the villages and “in general, anywhere outside the “poqr kentron” area”, litter is a huge problem, as well. She has found a way to help her country: she has done volunteer work at Yerevan World Book Capital, ArtExpo, Orran and a lot of other volunteering jobs.
Despite all the problems mentioned, Mariam, now, loves Armenian and Armenians.
Source: JNews.am