I was hungry so on the first stop I got off and went to a local McDonalds and bought myself a cheeseburger, I hated fast food but where else could I have gone? When I got back to the station, the train was gone.  I didn’t panic because I knew I had money and could just buy another ticket. I reached in my pocket and my $100 bill was gone! Then it hit me! I had remembered a woman bending down behind me and then walking away quickly with a smile on her face; I had even thought “Oh how friendly and happy these people are!” But no that woman was a no good thief! All I had now was an unfinished coke and 12 dollars and a handful of coins, most of them were small and brown.

      Then, in the crowd I saw that man from the train! I ran up to him and told me about my situation. He had told me that he would take me in, let me live and eat for free if I would help him in his garden. At that point I would agree to anything! The man smiled and said “You have a good soul kid, I can tell, you are smart too. Come with me”. The man lived in a small apartment home with a view on the garden. The man had told me to water his peaches in the morning and afternoon. Every day in the garden random people would come up to me and talk; there was even a man that could not hear anything! The peaches grew big and juicy! Every day their flesh turned red and they softened. I was just so amazed! With all these people working in the garden there were no arguments to whose land was whose. There were people from all over the world, Korea, England, Sweden and everywhere else you could think of! There was even a tribal man who showed me how to water the peaches properly. While I was in the garden, I was relaxed, there was no tension! I got so used to the garden that it became my home, even after I had left America, the garden was still a place where I had gone, not physically, but mentally, it was a place for me to relax and release my tension, and solve my problems!

     America was truly the land of opportunity; you didn’t have to have friends or relatives in the government to get the good job.  All you had to have was hope and spirit. From the garden I had learned that America was truly the giant melting pot and the true land of opportunity!