Many students experience that the prepackaged secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum used in many classrooms does not effectively engage them or further their English acquisition. This article shares the story of creating a curriculum the authors believe other teachers can emulate to successfully teach adolescents who are new to the country. The curriculum is based on students' lives and stories. Understanding newcomers' unique potential and challenges, the authors generated their own curriculum based on the rich experiences of the diverse students in one of their ESL classes. This included thirty-seven students from seven different countries with English language abilities ranging from beginning to high intermediate. The three-month unit titled My Life: My Stories centered on students' lives guided by relevant theories of second language acquisition as explained in this article. The authors submit that this curriculum was not only more effective at teaching language than the textbook, but more importantly, it also achieved the goal of creating a sense of belonging.