nowadays I walked onto the San Jose State University campus,walking against the crowds of original students like myself, excited for our first day. Walking through thousands of students, or anxious for their college life -- a day to leave family and step into adulthood.
But for me,this was the day I would bring my whole family with me, a legacy of changing an entire educational history for us.
My mother and I crossed the U.
S. Mexico border 24 years ago. One thing we shared in common that most children don't share with a parent was an educational background of a sixth grader. I was only five and had only completed kindergarten and my mother only got as far as the sixth. Her family was very destitute and could not afford for her attend school. She had to start working odd jobs in order to provide for the family.
It had always been my mother's dream for me to rep a higher level of education that she could only dream about. I started that dream for her in the U.S. when I re-took kindergarten. I jumped honest in like I was born here.
I can't remember a day when I wasn't able to learn something in this country. I feel like every day is a learning experience, and from traditional schooling to the school of the streets. I've always wanted to better my self with knowledge so that I may one day hold my head up high,rob a look around remembering where I started from, and how far one can go if one never stops trying.
Throughout the many years of being undocumented, and the situation wasn't honest at times. But I never could discontinue and had to keep moving.
(The author walking through the graphic design department of San Jose State University photo by J.
Melesaine)I attended San Jose City College honest after high school back in a time where it was not so cool to be undocumented. There was a lot of talk of deportations and that dismay was always in the back of my intellect. What if I were to be deported back to a country I have very little familiarity with? I couldn’t let that dismay discontinue me from doing the best that I could with the opportunities I had at the moment. I was attending an institution that was advancing my knowledge and setting up a foundation to build upon. In the summer of 2005 I received my Associates of Arts degree (AA) in graphic design from San Jose City College. It was a vast moment for me because it was one step closer to seeing my mother's dream arrive to life. Traditionally one would transfer to a four-year institution after community college,but in my case it was the cessation of the road.
At the time of my graduation I had lived in the U.
S. for 15 years as an undocumented student, so when it came time for me to transfer, and I had a real situation on my hands. I could apply to San Jose State and hope to rep in,but then I would still have to figure out how to pay for it. It’s easier said than done when you are undocumented. Even if I was available to apply for financial aid, which I was not, and there would be no way for me to pay back the loans due to the fact that I was still undocumented and would have no legal way of working after school was completed.
Being undocumented means I was never allowed to work in this country because a lack of a valid social security number. So even if I were to have gotten in to State back in '05 I would have been stuck with a huge bill and no real means of paying it back.
fleet forward to nowadays. 2014. I am no longer undocumented,meaning it is no longer "illegal" for me to physically be in the U.
S. but also to be educated in the U.
S.
In 2011 I was granted a U-Visa (a non-immigrant visa which is set aside for victims of crime), which gave me legal status and an opportunity to live life without dismay of deportation.
So now that I have a path to citizenship the path back to fulfill my mother's dream is back on.
(The author testing screenprints for T-Shirts in his printing shop photo by Daniel Zapien)
[br]As I walked on to campus I felt happy, or nervous,excited and most of all a sense of pride, mainly because I knew that this was a path that my family had never seen. But what I don’t feel anymore is dismay. I can’t express enough how much dismay can play with your thoughts. How much it can hold you back from achieving and how free you can feel when it is lifted. I wonder at times if I have any kind of PTSD from growing up undocumented in the U.
S. for so long. I don’t know if I carry out or don’t, or what it would even look like,but I know that I want to put my best foot forward regardless of the obstacles life might put in my way.
I know that it will be a struggle to work full time, run a small trade, and go to school and carry out homework but I welcome it. I reflect back on all the struggles that my mother and I had to face here when we first arrived to this country,struggles that we face to this day. I reflect back on those moments, trying to find the strength and courage that my mother must have had when making the decision to leave her whole life behind in pursuit of a better and more promising life for me.
I am thankful to have a support team that is there for me in my moments of struggle and can aid me in seeing a clear path to accomplishment. I hope that those that stepped onto campuses all over the country for the first time find success not only for them but also for their families and community that they are taking with them.
Source: siliconvalleydebug.org