My name is Valeria and Im Undocumented

We know that we promised to upload one story everyday for Coming Out Week and apparently you all expected us to do it on weekends too. But we were in New Jersey facilitating a training and didn’t have time …. so we’re going to make it up to you by posting TWO stories every day!

Here is Valeria’s:

As I walked to subway this morning, I saw a woman in a yellow coat walking in the same direction. She had a coffee in one hand, a paperback book in the other and a purse which seemed to have weighed a bunch since it was making her right shoulder slouch a bit more than the left. Something very familiar about this lady intrigued me, but I simply shrugged my shoulders and continued walking to the 1 downtown train station that I have been taking every day for the past seven months.

Coincidental enough, the lady in the yellow coat was sitting directly in front of me as the train had come to the station. I put my drink down, looked inside my heavy purse to find that I had forgotten my current novel at home. I had absolutely nothing to do for the next 45 minutes of my life than to wander my eyes aimlessly around in hope of something interesting to catch my sight.

I closed my eyes and memories filled my head as fast as the speed of the train.

…

I thought of my dad the day before we came to the United States from Colombia trying to ease my tears away by telling me about all the new amazing opportunities my upcoming life had in store for me. That’s something he’s always been good at- making the hardest situations never portray in his face by only displaying pure confidence through his eyes. As we landed in New York in January of 1998, my small seven year old body could barely stand the cold, but as always, my parents were there giving me protection to stay warm.

Scholastically, I was the same as my peers .Within two years in the country, I was put into a regular speaking English classroom. By 5^th grade, I was president of the student council. I really started to believe all those stories my dad had told me. I had friends, a supporting family and an un-denying successful future ahead- or so I believed.

Never did I pay close attention to the fact that my family and I were undocumented. My dad worked with my uncle at a shoe store and my mom was a housewife, so to me, I was like the other kids. When my family decided to move to Miami, Florida after 6^th grade, I knew that it had to do a lot with my dad’s job. We moved to make ends meet as he began to work for himself, always coming home with a smile on his face; quickly turned upside down once he and my mom would close the door and talk about money and immigration while my older sister and I just listened.

High School was the peak for me, as it is for many undocumented students. By senior year, even though I had been accepted into the school of my choice with 75% of paid tuition, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to attend. I wasn’t an eligible resident and all my trophies, awards, recognitions, being class president and speaking at my graduation became no more than just a faded memory.

All my friends thought I had my whole future ahead of me where I had no clue where my college career fell in place and instead I was the one feeling jealous of them and I blamed my parents for it. I saw my only choice was to move back to New York because I read of the in-state tuition within one year and I simply saw no other choice.

I thought of the past seven months and how they have been a completely mind and life changing experience. I am now enrolled in a community college taking day by day as it comes. I began to write to numerous organizations and miraculously got a response from the New York State Youth Leadership Council who is engaged in raising awareness for immigrant youth by promoting the DREAM act. This organization has brought back the confidence I lost the day I got my high school diploma.

I remember watching an All-Stars production (another organization I volunteer in) called The Task and hearing someone say “if we always hide who we are, do we become what we’re not?” That line has stuck to me since that day and one thing that I would never want to do is become a different person than who I am today, which is why I am showing my true personality. The stubbornness I once had has faded, the struggles my family has faced have only made me stronger  and I want nothing more than to change the perspective of those who think that us undocumented students don’t deserve to further our education.

…

The train came to a halt, making me blink my eyes to reassure my present reality. It was my stop and I suddenly got up to walk out as the lady in the yellow coat shot me a quick glance which made me realize that in her, I saw me. I saw the hope and the confidence that encourages me that someday, I’ll be able to fulfill all my dreams because in the end, when we are on one train wanting to go to a particular destination, it is very difficult to derail. You take your own train in the path of life, and no one could take that away from you- not even the barriers that stand against us.

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