March 2021 - Post 1

    My parents (duh). They were undocumented for the first 20 years of my life and the significance of that has only recently sunken in. More than a decade ago, on an ordinary morning getting ready for school my mother received a call. In hindsight, she knew why; the news were reporting on a raid - where my dad worked. She flipped open her red razor Motorola that snapped into position when upright; her voice trembled, but somehow composed. "Ya vente. No te agarraron?" "Come home. They didn't get you?" My dad, luckily was running late to work and he was never late. When he arrived the gates of his job clanked closed and no one was allowed to enter or leave the premises. He slipped through the grasp of "La migra". I don't remember if we went to school that day. Our day could have ended drastically different. My mom was left as the sole provider for myself, my brother and our two dogs. My dad left to New Mexico for a job so he could contribute a small amount of money. 

    I think of how many chance encounters they've ran into. I will never understand the fear they faced or the knots in their stomachs that clutched them from sleep. They came here to give my brother and I a better chance. I want them to know their struggles were not for nothing. They have always set themselves as examples of what not to be - uneducated individuals. We grew up not needing anything, but the presence of our parents. They worked so we would always have a home with a backyard and our dogs. They only thing they asked in return was for us to go to school and graduate from college. 

    You don't have to wait to finish school to "start your life". I had this idea that when I finished school then I would be able to do whatever I wanted. In truth, its about saving your money for experiences and not material things. School isn't stopping me, but enabling to do more. I had a timeline of things I wanted to do when I graduated, but I could also do it while I was in school. I believed that traveling abroad was only available if I did it as a part of school.