Ever since I entered elementary school full of hopes and aspirations, I was always praised by my parents, they told me that I was nothing like my brother who was constantly failing his high school classes, and everyday when I came home from school I would come back to my brother being scolded about his failures. I was too young to fully grasp why he was being yelled at but those experiences engraved an idea into my head, I couldn’t end up like my brother, that I have to make up for his failures by constantly exceeding school expectations, after all, my parents have always repeated the same sentiments to me, that unlike my brother, I would be the one to go out and do something great, and most importantly go to college, I was too busy play games like an ordinary child, no ,my childhood around 2016 wasn’t spent watching cartoons, but instead watching the news,not out of choice,it was how I spent time with my parents. Watching the news, I saw how often violence was committed against immigrants, people who looked like us. Every week brought a new story,another innocent person targeted for their roots. And each time, I didn’t just see a stranger on the screen. I saw my parents,in their eyes, in their voices, I heard the same accent. It felt like they were the ones under attack.​​That’s when I began to uncover a part of human nature the adults around me tried to shield me from. Before, I thought the worst thing someone could do was bully someone.” but what I saw on the news changed that. That’s when I stopped seeing the world as a safe place. I was helpless, I had spent so much of my time focusing on academics that I only really learned how to fluently speak English but I struggled to speak Spanish other than a basic understanding, and that came to haunt me all my life, I didn’t know how to communicate with my parents the true consequences of what this meant, and to this day I struggle to put into words what the current administration is doing, I don’t even know how to tell them to be safe, I can’t talk to my parents for the only way I know how to express my gratitude for them is through my grades. When I was little, I vividly remember drawing a stickman of me as a cop because that was my dream job, I originally wanted to be an officer, but then around middle school I changed my thought process, I realized that the idea of possibly having to shoot someone or push someone to the ground wasn’t something I wanted to do, it scared me, I wanted to deliver justice, make people feel safe while also making sure I don’t get hurt, then I came to a decision, I was gonna be a lawyer, more specifically an immigration lawyer. This came to me when I started to look back on my past, seeing kids cry because their parents didn’t have documentation, I saw myself in them. I felt fearful everyday, trapped, helpless, that one day I wouldn’t see my parents again due to racial profiling.

Ever since I entered elementary school full of hopes and aspirations, I was always praised by my parents, they told me that I was nothing like my brother who was constantly failing his high school classes, and everyday when I came home from school I would come back to my brother being scolded about his failures. I was too young to fully grasp why he was being yelled at but those experiences engraved an idea into my head, I couldn’t end up like my brother, that I have to make up for his failures by constantly exceeding school expectations, after all, my parents have always repeated the same sentiments to me, that unlike my brother, I would be the one to go out and do something great, and most importantly go to college. When I was little, I vividly remember drawing a stickman of me as a cop because that was my dream job, I originally wanted to be an officer, but then around middle school I changed my thought process, I realized that the idea of possibly having to shoot someone or push someone to the ground wasn’t something I wanted to do, it scared me, I wanted to deliver justice, make people feel safe while also making sure I don’t get hurt, then I came to a decision, I was gonna be a lawyer, more specifically an immigration lawyer. This came to me when I started to look back on my past, seeing kids cry because their parents didn’t have documentation, I saw myself in them. I felt fearful everyday, trapped, helpless, that one day I wouldn’t see my parents again due to racial profiling. I was raised by fear itself, ,I had to learn how to live with it to the point where I was raised by it, like the way mother nature is relentless towards newborn animals coming into the world, I was cradled by fear itself, taught to be cautious before I ever had the chance to feel safe but it was in that caution that I learned how to protect the people I loved, even when I was powerless. Attending college would not only mean that I would make my parents proud, but for once in my life, I could breathe a sigh of relief, not for my family, but for the chance that I could help make children not experience the same fear I once did.

Ever since I entered elementary school full of hopes and aspirations, I was always praised by my parents, they told me that I was nothing like my brother who was constantly failing his high school classes, and everyday when I came home from school I would come back to my brother being scolded about his failures. I was too young to fully grasp why he was being yelled at but those experiences engraved an idea into my head, I couldn’t end up like my brother, that I have to make up for his failures by constantly exceeding school expectations, after all, my parents have always repeated the same sentiments to me, that unlike my brother, I would be the one to go out and do something great, and most importantly go to college. When I was little, I vividly remember drawing a stickman of me as a cop because that was my dream job, I originally wanted to be an officer, but then around middle school I changed my thought process, I realized that the idea of possibly having to shoot someone or push someone to the ground wasn’t something I wanted to do, it scared me, I wanted to deliver justice, make people feel safe while also making sure I don’t get hurt, then I came to a decision, I was gonna be a lawyer, more specifically an immigration lawyer. This came to me when I started to look back on my past, seeing kids cry because their parents didn’t have documentation, I saw myself in them. I felt fearful everyday, trapped, helpless, that one day I wouldn’t see my parents again due to racial profiling. I was raised by fear itself, ,I had to learn how to live with it to the point where I was raised by it, like the way mother nature is relentless towards newborn animals coming into the world, I was cradled by fear itself, taught to be cautious before I ever had the chance to feel safe but it was in that caution that I learned how to protect the people I loved, even when I was powerless. Attending college would not only mean that I would make my parents proud, but for once in my life, I could breathe a sigh of relief, not for my family, but for the chance that I could help make children not experience the same fear I once did.

Ever since I entered elementary school full of hopes and aspirations, I was always praised by my parents, they told me that I was nothing like my brother who was constantly failing his classes, and everyday when I came home from school I would come back to my brother being scolded about his failures. I was too young to fully grasp why he was being yelled at but those experiences engraved an idea into my head, I couldn’t end up like my brother, that I have to make up for his failures by constantly exceeding school expectations, after all, my parents have always repeated the same sentiments to me, that unlike my brother, I would be the one to go out and do something great, and most importantly go to college. When I was little, I vividly remember drawing a stickman of me as a cop because that was my dream job, I originally wanted to be an officer, but then around middle school I changed my thought process, I realized that the idea of possibly having to shoot someone or push someone to the ground wasn’t something I wanted to do, it scared me, I wanted to deliver justice, make people feel safe while also making sure I don’t get hurt, then I came to a decision, I was gonna be a lawyer, more specifically an immigration lawyer. This came to me when I started to look back on my past, seeing kids cry because their parents didn’t have documentation, I saw myself in them. I felt fearful everyday, trapped, helpless, that one day I wouldn’t see my parents again due to racial profiling. I was raised by fear itself, ,I had to learn how to live with it to the point where I was raised by it, like the way mother nature is relentless towards newborn animals coming into the world, I was cradled by fear itself, taught to be cautious before I ever had the chance to feel safe but it was in that caution that I learned how to protect the people I loved, even when I was powerless. Attending college would not only mean that I would make my parents proud, but for once in my life, I could breathe a sigh of relief, not for my family, for the chance that I could help make children not experience the same fear I once did.