The Real World & Dreamies

Dear fellow dreamies,

I am here to offer a word of encouragement and perhaps suggestions to those who are in this seemingly dire situation. I was one of those people who dreamt about my future. I would tell myself "if I only have a green card, I would serve the society as best as I could. Knowing I will have a future I will strive to be the best with nothing to stand in my way." If you are a person who has the same thoughts I did, then I am here to tell you how foolish you are.

There are two important resources in every person's life.
Time and Money.

For us young people, we have time. As our classmates go off to intern at big companies or work to save up the big bucks, we are usually at home bumming out doing nothing because of our status. Big mistake. Stop dreaming and start acting. If your dream is to become a doctor, then I would laugh my ass off if the only thing stopping you is a green card. Plug yourself into the industry. Volunteer. Use all these extra time you have to learn extra things. As dreamers we have to dedicate even *more time* to achieving our goal than the average person. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE GREEN CARD. Go out and network. Go to conferences and talk to people and let them know you are someone who dedicated him/herself to the industry. *Use your time as a precious resource.* While my friends spent their summer earning money interning for Google or Microsoft, I spent my extra time learning 2 new programming languages. Keep up your competitive edge.

Hear my words. There will be no college graduates who cannot get a job. There will be noone who are truly passionate about an industry, to be denied access. No matter how ugly you are, you will find a wife someday (yea. horrible example but you get my point). All that will come in time. Our status is not an obstacle that should stop us and make us wait dead in our tracks. This is something we can just f*kn carry on our backs and move forward with.

When your green card comes, will you really be ready to achieve your dreams? When your interviewer asks you "what have you been doing in the past year," will you even have the face to say "Nothing. Because of my status I wasn't allowed to work." USA is a land of dreams but not the land for naivettes. It is not the land for the low-morale and the miracle-waiters.

I hope this short message will motivate you just a bit, enough to get off that youtube for the day and prepare yourself in all way possible, to be a critical member of this society.

I agree with you but you also must take into consideration that by networking and volunteering and getting into our fields, job offers will come up and questions will arise as to why we are rejecting them if we're so dedicated to the field, therefore closing the same doors we worked so hard to open. It's just a whole good/bad, love/hate situation we must live with day by day and we all must do our best to deal with it and move on. There's a negative and positive side to everything and it all depends which way you look at things. You are absolutely right though and that's good advice, it's the same I would give.

Dad is that you? lol my dad says that to me daily, its easier said but really hard to do.

You will tell them the truth. Just tell them you are not authorized to work in the US as of yet and would like the opportunity to be kept on file should you obtain the authorization later on. It is how I got my job. Trust me. Employers aren't the ICE. The top executives in google are more interested in people who love what they do. Similar minds attract.

People do not realize how many doors are actually open. If you search idealist.org you can see many organizations who can use extra hands in volunteering. These volunteering jobs are not only limited to painting a fence or teaching a child, but upper scale jobs such as web design, programming, and even engineering.

Sure money will be hard to come by if we do not have status. But like I said earlier, we have time so we should use it as a precious resource.

And it IS hard to do. Because in the inside many are the same as the citizen kids who do not pursue their dreams but rather passively wait. But being fellow dreamers I felt like I needed to do an extra push because I know how it felt to have 0 motivation. Take the message as you will. Just a heads up to the other dreamers with big goals, that your rival ultimately is not the ICE, the redneck next door, or DHS, but the smart, motivated and hard working American that you will be competing with for the job.

I am a sophomore in a community college and future M.D. and so far I've been to 3 national conferences and scientific symposium and 1 leadership conference (networking with doctors and engineers) and I will attend at least 2 more conferences before I go off to a 4 yr univ.
I do lots of volunteer service, I am very involved in clubs at school (I am president of one of them), I will do shadow a physician program this semester and I'm hoping to meet enough people to get a summer internship there (if not I have plan B and C).

So yeah I agree with quingshu, not having a green card is a big obstacle, but that doesn't mean your hands are tied up behind your back. At least do lots of community service if thats what you feel is the only thing you can do without a green card, that way you can tell an employer or professional school interviewer, "I was not able to do that 'cause I didn't qualify, but I did extensive community service and I was very involved in school" and that says a lot about you.

P.S. You have no idea how many times i've had to turn down internships (including one with the CIA and NASA) and yeah I just want to scream and cry and throw a huge temper tantrum, but at least I know where to look to when DREAM passes!

qingshu, you could not be more right.

I know I have it a little easier than a lot of you because I live in the state of Washington, but there are opportunities out there, as long as you network with the right people. I know so many people who have helped me in my journey to becoming a college student, I wouldn't have even applied to college if it wasn't for a friend of mine who got me involved and even got me a scholarship. From there I just slowly started talking to a few people at my community college, who then connected me with some people from my current university. I have all of my tuition payed for, and I even have a summer internship job, which is paid through a scholarship, because of some people I know in the engineering department.

I'm not telling you to just tell anybody about your status, I've only told a handful in my whole life, but to analyze, and carefully speak to people who you think are more open minded and outgoing.
Good luck

So let me try to see if i undrestand what you are trying to say in a more summarized way ,

" work hard, learn and prepare yourself for the future. Dont sulk on things you dont have, but treasure what you do have. And try your best and never give up so that you can be a successful person and at the same time a person with a beautiful heart".

I am so with you . That is the way every one should be. thank you.

I agree.
It's easier for us to just do nothing because we're missing a green card. But that should not stop us. We need to defy the stereotype of lazy immigrants and prove to the world--US citizens in particular--that we intend to intellectually contribute to the benefit of this country.

"DO NOT WAIT FOR THE GREEN CARD"

Omg, your absolutely right!! I should start volunteering and build up my profile (resume whatever you wanna call it) Great advice. Thx.