My First Year in America

Hosts Adoley and Gabbie interview Marie Fotso, a Cameroonian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 2019 on a student visa, beginning her studies at Middlesex Community College in Massachusetts and then moving to Atlanta. Marie describes growing up as the youngest in a large family shaped by loss, strict sibling-led upbringing, and pressure tied to Cameroon’s English/French school tracks and expectations set by her “genius” brother. She recounts a rushed visa process, her first international flight, and early culture shock in Boston, including food, school placement tests, weather and loneliness. A painful long-distance breakup triggered a mental health awakening, while transferring schools and befriending a fellow international student helped. COVID left her in Atlanta, where her brother’s community, warmer weather, and Southern hospitality helped her heal and avoid bitterness. Marie focuses on near-term goals, moving into a new home, becoming less of a people pleaser, and staying open for love.

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Aspet Archuniani: Leaving Tehran After the Revolution, Detours Through London, and Starting Over in San Francisco

Hosts Sophia and Adoley interview Aspet Archuniani, an Armenian Iranian who left Tehran just after his 15th birthday amid the 1978–79 Iranian Revolution, witnessing street violence, shootings, and a bank fire near his home that heightened his mother’s panic and pushed the family to relocate temporarily. Hoping to reunite with parts of his family in the U.S., he flew to Paris but was denied a visa and became stranded, then moved to London, attended boarding school, and made friends through athletics. At 17, he finally entered the U.S. during post–hostage-crisis tensions, faced harsh immigration scrutiny, and settled in San Francisco with family, where soccer and two Iranian friends helped him adapt to his new home. He reflects on misconceptions about Iranians, resilience, and reuniting with his parents and brother in 1987 after eight years apart.

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-first-year-the-anthology/id6783951127

🎵 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033E5eQCpjrdZn3fPJZfIh?si=9b0022150d0a4332

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• What was the first thing you ate in America?
• What was the first thing you bought with your own money in America?

Hear MY FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA guest Twiggy Damy's answers to these fun rapid-fire questions. 

To discover more about Twiggy's immigration journey in 1991, the challenges of family separation, and how a community theater program helped her discover her passion for supporting immigrant families, catch her full conversation on  MY FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA. 

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Sophia and Adoley interview Catherine about immigration and adapting to life in the US. Catherine, born in the UK to immigrant parents (a Scottish-descended father born in Canada and an Irish mother who moved to London at 16), describes growing up feeling like an only child and being accustomed to migration stories amid UK-Irish tensions in the 1970s–80s. She recounts meeting her American husband Andrew in 2010, having their son Matthew in 2012, and maintaining a long-distance relationship until deciding to immigrate in the US. Their spouse visa process during COVID took over two years, included prior visa-interview anxiety, a bureaucratic “glitch,” and intervention via a White House contact and their congressperson. Catherine discusses Matthew’s adjustment, her own challenges making friends, moving their dog, and later becoming a US citizen, valuing the Constitution and voting for the first time. 

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Hosts Sophia and Adoley interview Twiggy Damy, a care manager in the Bay Area, about her immigration journey from Acapulco, Mexico to California in 1991. Twiggy recounts losing her father at age five, being raised largely by her paternal grandmother, and her mother’s repeated moves to the U.S. that left Twiggy longing for reunification and struggling with suppressed grief. After years apart, Twiggy finally reunited with her mother and stepfather in San Francisco’s Mission District, adjusting to small apartments, public transit, limited holiday traditions, and not speaking English. And unexpectedly she found belonging through community theater for high-risk youth, which shaped her path into family- and community-based support work and deepened pride in her multicultural roots.

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What does it feel like to leave behind everything you've ever known—and begin again?

My First Year in America is a new podcast from Sophia Media exploring the deeply personal stories of immigrants and the first year that changed their lives.

Through intimate conversations, our guests revisit the excitement, uncertainty, fear, discovery, and transformation of starting over in the United States. They reflect on the people they left behind, the challenges they faced, the moments that shaped them, and how that first year changed their identity, relationships, and sense of self.

Because sometimes, a single year can change everything.

My First Year in America premieres September 4.

🌐Follow the series wherever you listen to podcasts and join our growing community at sophiamedia.co.

▶️ www.youtube.com/@MyFirstYearSeries

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