When you look at me you only see the color of my skin and the language I speak. I am a daughter of immigrants. The stories of my parents are wars that I could never imagine waging just to live a good life. Growing up, I was always told I always had to try harder, but I didn’t know why. Starting school, I didn’t know how to speak English, much less how to be friends with classmates who knew nothing about my culture or family. Even though I felt like the world was falling apart, I never gave up. That’s why my parents taught me to always grab the world by its horns.
“Because I had heard that there were more opportunities here for work, to grow, to have something,” my mom said. “I crossed through the bridge when I was 14… a grandfather came for me.”
My mom was my strength as I grew up. My second associate was just as emotional as the first.
My mom is a strong and humble woman, always showing us how to grow during hard times. When I was a child, she was a stay-at-home mom who took care of me and my younger brother. Nothing could plan that my mom would not only take care of us, but that my brother would also be born with autism. She is one of the most amazing people I will ever meet in my life. She did everything for us and without showing us how hard it was. She began to plan for my future without me knowing what I wanted to do with my life and she always said I would do something magnificent.
“It was worth it.. -Now that we are doing well financially, that you are in school, that you are grown up,” my mom said. “We live well; we are doing well.”
But my mom couldn’t do it without all the work my dad has done. He always went out and worked long hours so that we, as a family, had everything we needed. I always grew up being my dad’s little girl, the princess, and for him my happiness was all he needed. I still remember waiting at the door for my dad to come home, to give him a hug because I missed him so much. Even being that young, I would cry from how grateful I was for all he does for us. Knowing he worked all day with the sun, harsh winds and with everything else the weather brought.
“When you were born, you were our first baby here in the United States and that’s how we started our family.. We completed our family,” my dad said.
My dad is a lineman who climbs the posts. He chose to stop his education and come to the United States to work.
My dad taught me how to be strong and to never settle for less. He pushed me to overcome my toughest limits and told me to always put in more effort. He says nothing in life is too difficult because I can do it if I just put my mind to it and choose to put in the effort. I will never forget that. My dad worked and still works hard to give everything to my family, me and my future.
“Every sacrifice has its rewards, and like many of us who come to this country to sacrifice being far from our families, our fathers, our mothers, we sacrificed many things in our country to come to this place,” my father said. “Supposedly this country is a country of freedom and over time we found a lot of freedom, but we have also suffered a lot… But we got ahead as a family.”
My parents always taught me that getting ahead in life means getting your education and always giving it your all. I always have to give it everything because they will never have these opportunities, yet they will always do everything so that I will always have these opportunities in my life.
“We’re grown now, we have worked for many years and for me the future is like… Not for me, but for my children so they don’t need anything. We have suffered often in our countries,” my dad said. “My future is to see them happy and not struggling in the world like how we struggled.”
My parents worked hard for us to get to where we are today. They had very little, so they always made sure that we always had enough.
My family really isn’t that different from other families, but my family will always have to try a little harder. We always need to prove something in life because my parents came here young and without papers. They chose to separate themselves from everything they had known in order to one day raise me and have me in a country of opportunity. I could never repay them for what they did for me.
“I’m someone who likes to always look ahead, and I see a lot of good things for the future,” my mom said. “I see you graduating, your dad retiring peacefully, good things in the future.”
I finished high school with an associate degree all while being in school working on extracurricular activities. My mom always told me I should sleep at the school because of how much time I spent there. Now, in college I finished a second associate degree in criminal justice in just one year as I came back again to finish my third associate. I am also working in a dual degree program for my bachelor’s in psychology and criminal justice.
I am so much more than just a daughter of immigrants. In life I hope, one day, you look at me for what I have accomplished and not just where I come from. Without my family, without my parents, I could never imagine being so free to choose what I want in my life. I love them so much and I will always tell the next generation how far we have come thanks to them.