About Me
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About Me
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Here is a little bit about me. My name is Damir Somic and I am currently residing in Little Elm, Texas (DFW Metro Area). I am 28 year-old originally from Bosnia and due to war in Bosnia in 90's I came to United States on June 5, 1995. I like variety of things which include Christian group Hillsongs Australia, collecting stamps, hanging out with my friends, watching movies, going out to dance clubs, Starbucks and most of all I love God. I have had a very rough life and I would not wish the things I went through on my worst enemy. I had a pretty normal childhood in Bosnia till I was about 11 years old and that is when war started. I started working at the age of 12 so I could support my family because my father was dragged into the military due to the war. Besides working and taking care of my family I took care of my grandmother who was paralyzed and could not walk or anything. When I was 14 my mother gave birth to 2 of my brothers and they were born prematurely. Doctors in Bosnia have released them from the hospital early because they were not Serbian nationality and one my brothers died because doctors in Bosnia released them early and refused to give him the medicine when he was dying. That was a most tragic event of my life and after that I have became very weak. My other brother survived thanks to a mercy of God and he is 7 years old now. Well lets get back to the story. After my brother died a week later my grandmother died and that was another shock for me. After her death my family realized that it was a time for us to leave Bosnia and just go anywhere else just not to stay there. So one night me and my neighbor Delveta Rukavina decided to go and wait in front of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) all night because that is the only way that they will see you in the morning. Well we waited entire night and after that they told us that they were not transporting anyone out of Bosnia at that time. Several months after that me and my neighbor Delveta went to UNHCR again because now Serbian soldiers were coming to our apartments and telling us move or we will be killed because we were not Serbs. We went and just pleaded with UNHCR officer and she said that she will try to get us transported with Serbian Transportation Commission to UN zone in Croatia where we will be safe. After several months of trying to get us on the convoy for UN zone she finally succeeded and we left Bosnia December 16, 1994. In the UN zone I have gone through a living nightmare personally and I still can not talk about that part of my life openly but I will soon so please forgive me for keeping that from you. After spending about 14 days in that UN zone my family and I were transferred to a refugee camp in northern Croatia near the city Varazdin. During my stay in the refugee camp near Varazdin I met some people that have became very close friends of mine during my stay there. I have turned in the application to UNHCR for my family to be transferred to one of the countries that was accepting refugees from Bosnia. Well after several appointments and interviews we have been informed that we needed to report to United States Resettlement Office in Zagreb (capital of Croatia) for a final interview to our resettlement to United States. We have completed that interview as well as a medical exams to find out that two months later we would be transferred to United States. They told us that we are going to be living in Texas and they have not specified that city. So we knew that Dallas was a pretty big city but in my mind I though Texas was just state with a lot of ranches on it and that was it. Boy was I surprised when I saw what Texas really was. Well after we arrived here agency that helped us resettle was World Relief and they are located in Fort Worth, Texas. They have been extremely helpful to me and my family and I am very grateful for that. A couple of days after I we came to United States my family has been transferred to Arlington where my family lives right now. During my first days in US I have been trying to find my way around town and by now knowing any English I was having a very hard time. Well in the next couple of months I have been focusing on learning more and more English. During this time I met and became a friends with several people from a local church called Grace Community Church. Those people have truly helped me and my family a lot during the past 6 years that I have been here. When I started attending the free English classes at Grace I have started coming to the church as well. The worship was just awesome. I love it. Anyways in August of 1995 I started attending Newcomer Center at local high school so that I could learn to speak better English while attending a school. After 6 months I was able to speak English fluently. Shortly after that I became a translator for Bosnian people here in DFW Metroplex and I had fun doing a translating work. In the 1997 I started attending Arlington High School. During my high school years at Arlington High I have learned a lot and a lot of changes have occurred in my life as well. Most of the fun that I had in high school came from being on newspaper staff. I loved it. If you are thinking about which elective to take in high school take a journalism. My fellow staffers and me became very good friends and some of them I will treasure for rest of my life. My senior year was probably easiest and at the same time hardest year in my life. I was getting ready to graduate at the same time I had a full time job working 70+ hours a week so I can help my family out. At the end of my senior year I was going to go to a prom and my prom date cancelled on me two days before the prom. I was very hurt. So I just stayed home on the prom night :-( . After graduating high school I continued working at Fry's Electronics where I became a Customer Service Supervisor in December of 2000. I left Fry's Electronics in beginning of 2002 to start working for Advocare International, a company that sells nutritional supplements. I was laid off from Advocare in March of 2003 and shortly after that I started working for office furniture store in Addison called Dallas Desk. I enjoy it very much and expect to be there for a long time. Besides working for Dallas Desk I go to school full time at University of North Texas in Denton, TX and Collin College in Plano TX where I am obtaining my degree in accounting after which I will work on my masters in accounting as well. ~ D!
Click here to read my Senior Column that was published in my high school's newspaper "The Colt"
P.S. If you would like to contact me you can do so by contacting me from one of the ways listed below.
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