I realized I would have to work so much harder
I think that when people look at me, they see someone who’s in control and is very organized. What they don’t know is that I live in a lot of uncertainty and fear. In 2008 I moved to the United States from Mexico with my family, just a few months after the deadline for DACA in 2007. At six years old I didn’t know what it meant to be undocumented, or the challenges I would face as I grew up. We had to adapt a lot to our new surroundings, staying positive despite having no promise for our future here. I remember the first time I started to realize that I was different from my peers because of my undocumented status. In sophomore year of high school, all my friends started getting jobs and driving, but without a social security number I had so much less opportunity to do these things. This was when I realized I would have to work so much harder than my peers and that school was the thing that would make me able to achieve my goals.
In high school I got serious about my academics, doing everything I could to get ahead and make the most of the resources I had. I did Running Start at a community college while still in high school and graduated with both my diploma and my Associates Degree. I am so driven towards my academics because without a visa or residency, I have no way of knowing what will happen in the future. Politically things have been scary, and it can be difficult to motivate myself academically with this fear always in the back of my mind.
My personal faith helps me to be hopeful that my future will be bright and that I am here for a reason, but without it I might fall. I wish that people would realize how blessed they are to be citizens. There is a lot of fear in the immigrant community in these past few years. I want people to know that we are real people working hard to overcome this struggle, and that even though there can be people who do bad things, we are all just trying to move forward and build a better future for ourselves. I grew up witnessing a lot of pain and a lot of people who need more help, because of this I have been inspired to go through nursing school so that I can become a nurse practitioner and give back to the communities that raised me. Despite the threat of everything falling apart, I try to stay motivated and hopeful, knowing that I have something important to give back to communities in need.
