An Immigrant’s Checklist by Zainab A. Omaki
Associate fiction editor Esperanza Vargas Macias on today’s bonus essay: When I read this piece, I felt as though it had been written for me and my family. The feeling Zainab A. Omaki captures in “An Immigrant’s Checklist” is one people who have left home behind understand. These are not just things we lose—these are things we sacrifice and grieve for.
An Immigrant’s Checklist
Things I lost when I left my country: one packet of Andrew’s liver salts, one ear wax cleaner, one dangling earring, two pairs of fluffy, soft socks, one nappy wig, three pashmina scarves gifted to me by my mother, a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale signed by Margaret Atwood, a car, a family photo, knowledge of the proper side of the road to cross, one job that I hated, two-thirds of a boyfriend—the rest I would lose within a month—one mother’s approval, my nieces’ memories of me, family nearby, the inability to see my own skin colour, the possibility of being in a family photo, the ability to look into my brother’s eyes and dissuade him from marrying the wrong person, loud weekends with sisters-in-law, nieces, a nephew, siblings and two parents, the suffocating grip of those last two people, outings with close friends who have known me since birth, the entry of a squalling, yummy smelling new nephew, roads I am familiar with, languages I am familiar with, expressions that do not need to be explained, accents that feel right in the ears, news headlines that enrage me because the same troubles plagued my land twenty years ago and still do today and will in ten years forcing me to leave, groceries that don’t need to be bought in an ethnic shop, fruit—mangoes and pineapples that taste better—the word home, the feeling of home, the certainty of home.
Zainab A. Omaki has a masters in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was the recipient of the Miles Morland African Writer's scholarship. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, TSS Publishing, and other spaces. She is currently a Reader in Residence at SmokeLong Quarterly.
