Joe T Burns

Kassah's dad died before he was born in Ethiopia. Because of this, he was given the name Kassahun, which roughly means ‘good things to come’. His mother left the house and also passed away, when he was 4 ½ months old. Kassah was raised by his grandmother and lived with cousins until it was too much for his grandma. Kassah was 7 when he was brought to an orphanage. There were a lot of kids at the orphanage but not many would stay very long. They would get adopted or transferred. Kassah was there for about a year. Kassah had not been able to keep in contact with his family members. Today he remembers his country as very poor and undeveloped. In the orphanage, he wondered if he would be “that older kid that never got adopted.” When people came to look at the kids they would sometimes bring toys. Kassah's first toy was a volleyball, which he used as a soccer ball. So, when people came to the orphanage Kassah would try to impress them with his soccer skills. There was a lady who would take pictures to update the orphanage website and Kassah would always be showing off to try to get his photo in front of potential parents. The day Kassah was adopted came as a complete surprise. His first reaction was very happy and then very confused. His new parents did not speak his language so Kassah just smiled. His first move was to Michigan where he was put in the second grade. A very confusing time for him even with a translator. Kassah's native language is Amharic. There are 88 languages spoken in Ethiopia. Kassah has a new brother Alan who is not adopted and is one year younger. They would move to Minneapolis one year later. This is when Kassah would start to play soccer and hockey. Kassah learned to skate and he found himself to be pretty fast. At this point Kassah still didn’t feel that he fit into America mostly because of the language barrier. He also had a hard time writing cursive. Once he got to 5th grade and started to understand English better he started to speak more. To hear Kassah speak today, you wouldn’t know that he is an immigrant. Kassah is now a Junior at Southwest High School and the biggest thing in his life is soccer. He plays for a team called Minnesota Thunder Academy. He travels around the country playing games and getting scouted by coaches. Kassah is a very good soccer player but knows he has to continue to work hard. His passion comes from playing in the dirt fields in Ethiopia. His dream is to play professionally in England. He loves the excitement of the European stadiums. Kassah's coach is from Cameroon and has two sons, one that plays professionally in Spain and the other plays on the same team with Kassah. This last spring, Kassah, his brother, and his father travelled to Ethiopia to visit his grandmother. With civil unrest, they were not sure if they would be able to travel to Kassah’s village. Fortunately, a new prime minister was sworn in the day after they arrived, and the country began to stabilize. The family, along with Kassah’s grandmother made the 13-hour journey to Kassah’s village, along the way being reunited with cousins, aunts, uncles, as well as his paternal grandparents. Kassah is now able to get updates regarding his grandmother through his former social worker via Instagram. His father is planning to take him back to Ethiopia in 2019 to visit his family. Kassah feels bad for new immigrants and how they are being treated. He sees how they are treated in the media and from our government and thinks racism comes from one’s parents. Kassah also doesn’t like to be known as Black but rather as African, not African-American. He looks at that as someone who is black that is born in America. Kassah would really like to stop racism and tries hard to at his school. Like his mom says, "if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all.". Kassah says that we all need to “not judge a book by its cover, and find a way to really know one another, and understand the struggles the other person may have endured.” Kassah is enjoying being a U.S. citizen as he now has his driver’s license. Watch out everyone!