Sorry

Hi, my name is Nuria and I am a 13-year-old immigrant. I come from El Salvador and I am going to tell you the story of why I am in America today and what I want to make out of it.

Right now I’m in the United States because of my mother. It wasn’t optional, of course, because I was only a baby. I was about the age of 1 when we came here. In America, life hasn’t been the easiest thing, especially because I am an immigrant, and I’m not as “free” here as I would be in my own country. I can’t say from my own experience that life’s hard or that it’s worse in America, because I’m only 13 years of age. I have a whole future ahead of me, but I could say that’s it’s tough on my parents. My mom brought me here, not only she could have a better life, but for me to have something she couldn’t. My dad came along in a few years and he expects a lot from me, and as I’m getting older both him and my mom expect more from me each year. I’m not going to lie, it’s overwhelming at times. He wants me to focus on school and graduate and get the best job I can regardless of being an immigrant or anything else.

This 7th grade year, I have to admit, has been the toughest. For example, coming out here and telling my “life story” is not easy. It is very hard to expose yourself to everyone, especially in this generation. You’re judged for the smallest and stupidest things. There are so many jokes about being deported, and especially now, because of our president, people around me make these jokes and they all fail to realize that their jokes affect me. They all fail to realize that one day my parents could be taken away from me, or that maybe I’ll even be sent away. Then what? They’re probably never going to see me again and they’ll start thinking about their hurtful jokes.

Everyone thinks I was born here. It kind of bothers me and sometimes I don’t respond because I’m afraid. I’m afraid that if my friends or other people find out I’m an immigrant, they’ll think different of me. I’m afraid of being different. Yeah, I get everyone is different because they’re unique in their own way, but this type of different is scary. This type of different separates us. Not because we want it to, but because of what’s surrounding us. Everything that’s said about immigrants in this country today makes people think bad about us. I know I’m young, but I also know that I have many more painful things that are coming my way, and I just hope I make it to high school. I hope I graduate and make my parents proud…