finally...

where do i begin?
i was born in mexico and lived there for 4 years, though most cant remeber the first 4 years of their childhood, i remember things here and there and they are all pleasant memories. loving parents and grandparents, a whole big land all to my self and family and cousins to spare. Ive never asked my parents what made them come here, and now that i think about it , i will probably ask them tomarrow morning..anyways.. my dad moved to california for a full year before my mother , brother and i came and becoming citizens was an objective for them. they went through their deal of "abogados" shady ones, and now they seem to have a good one, but who knows. hey they didnt know any better. we lived in someones back house, which was really just one room, to now living in a 5 bedroom home, which my parents own, and our family owns 4 cars all together. i have a job , and my parents pay taxes, my brother is a manager of his bank and my sister is a sophomore in high school. my parents worked so hard to provide this life for my brother , sister and me, they did all they could, my mom cleaned houses and my dad did construction . I am now 20 years old, and im going to turn 21 in like 4 months.i am really happy to have found this site, because, ONE i dont know if im like emberassed or something but my "legal" status is not something i discuss a lot. though now i know that i should. and in fact i need too. we all need to. i feel like i was kinda of forced to keep it a secret since its looked down as "wrong" they put a label of aliens to it. i remember being in like elementry school and this fat kid , right after the elections and whole 187 thing, came up to me and said, go back to your country!, i didnt go to such a diverse elementry school, so i couldnt be mad at the kid, he didnt know any better i thought, and i was like 7 when this happend. so because of that moment, i swore i would not let anyone know about my "status" bcuz i felt they were going to see me as "stupid". im older now and i dont think that obviously, but to think that a child of 7 years can feel liek that bcuz of one stupid kids comment?? THAT IS WRONG.


bottomline... usually i write [***edited by moderator***] name that ive had for like 8 yrs now, but i chose "anothercollegekid" bcuz thats all it takes for social movement. for our generation to stay focused on our goals and lead a revolution of social awareness. i hate how ignorant some people are. i hate that i can recite to you the constitution, tell you what the patriot act is, inform you of your bill of rights, and yet i am not good enough to vote?yet alone hold NO rights to these priveldges that natural born citizens have???

I am a Sociology major, minoring in philosophy at CSUN and i am hoping to attend Loyola Law School in 2 years. and that is my story....

this was a bunch of randomness..but it feels good to put out there.

oh and I really want some feedback or if someone wants to email me... i reeally think others like me who are stuck in this "rut" need to unite and really get the ball rolling.

how funny, that kids comment that has stuck with me through out these years, is actually one of the reasons from that age and on i wanted to be involved in politics.

I cant vote, but neither could black people, neither could women once. IT CAN HAPPEN. WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER. WE JUST NEED TO BE ORGANIZED .

***Edited because the information might compromise user's identity. There's a lot of bad people who browse this forum and will try to harm you (get you deported) if they have a chance. Please don't write your: email address, AOL or MySpace account names in the forums. They might contain important information about you and where you are. And trust me, you don't want these people know it. ALIPAC, and freerepublic members come to this forum, that's why we need to watch our backs.

--juang

Hey! Welcome to the forum. You, like all of us, have come a long way. Be proud of what you are, even with all the ignorance in the world. You'll soon get to vote, just be prepared to write letters, make phone calls, and educate people on what is going on so that they educate others. We're all here to work together.

welcome to the forum anothercollegekid. I hope you have fun in here.

Welcome, anothercollegekid,

A new year is dawning... all of us, let's go for it!!

I love when new people join the forum because I was so happy when i found this site.Did your parents ever become legal?My dad has been trying since he got here about 14 years ago and all he has so far is a ss#.But I guess that's the most important thing anyways so he's lucky.

Welcome! I second Abaddon's comment. We can make it happen this year. Let's try to stay positive.

yea im really happy to have found this site, i have been geering my attention to things that mean a lot to me but nothing like this. this is who i am and its something i am determined to help change! my parents were screwed over with lawyers..they dint know any better, now that i remeber they were told that their lawyrs apt. and office was burned down? so i dont know the truth in that but anyways , yea having a social security # is a great thing. mine says something on it liek...only with valid workers permit or somethign of that sort.. not sure. its like im ashamed to show it, but i should be proud?? i dont know.. i am working on this book about Identity crisis' for women like us, maybe u'd be interested to help me with it"? i know you were saying something about a boyfriend who u havent told. i have a boyfriend for 4 yrs.. it wasnt til the last year that were were together that i told him, when we broke up he threw that shit back in my face, but im hoping ur boyfriend is way better then my ex. (mine was very abusive, but i think i stayed with him for comfort...u know one of those things) dont feel scared to tell your boyfriend of who u are. its what u are. heck for all you know things could get better! they sure did for my ex relationship, he would call me his little immigrant. ahaha its kinda cute right?

all of us here, we have a bond, like a brotherhood/sisterhood, we are all children brought here without a choice, at the age of 3 all i wanted to do was be with my dad, so maybe my mom took that as , hey bring me to america? ahah not but really i just think people are scared of immigrants. "aliens" heck im scared of aliens, aliens liek E.T. that is..
sometimes i feel like i cant even blame ppl who say all immigrants are dirty people who just demand and demand, i remebr watching the protest a few months ago and i would see these high school kids who just wanted to get out of school and
were waving mexicans flags and yelling MEXICO IS #1, and i just shook my head and kinda got emberrassed, i hate that the media has posed that image to being the consensus thought of immigrants, that we all hate america , that we're all stupid, and we all live of welfare. lets not even get into welfare...
anyways.. im sorry i have rambled on.. bottom line is..look at all of us here. most of the stories are all the same..brought here at a young age, studied really hard, and now stuck in a rut. it sucks!
but keep your head up baby girl because the times are changing. we are the children of the shawdows...

i read this book in like 4th grade, about this society where there was a Population Police and every 3rd child born to a family was illegal and had to be taken away to be killed and stuff, so this kid.. uhm i think his name was... luke? met another kid just like him...since he thought he was the only one..and after meeting her she introduced him to a world of other kids just like him.. i dont remember how the book ended..but i thnk u know where i am going with this..as cheesy as this sounds i feel like luke when i came across this site..i have hope. in the book i think they got all the illegal 3rd borns to march up to capital hill... anyways

we will do this right. we will use the proper grammer, present the proper cases, and use the man made laws along with human fundamental rights to win our citizenship. one day. one day soon.

sorry for the randomness..im like on mind overload..

Welcome to DAP! I'm glad you found us.

I remember feeling all along and hopeless in this situation, those were not happy times...

wow we are so similar it's scary.I came over here when I was three also and sometimes I wish I never had.But then I think of all the people that I have in my life and all the experiences that I have had here and Im glad Im here.Yeah I have been with my boyfriend for 4 years (and three months lol) and I love him so much,but I dont even know how to tell him what I am. I think if I were gay coming out the closet would be a piece of cake compared to this.Im scared to tell him now because I’ve been with him for so long and never told him before. Now it feels like ive been deceiving him or something.What's funny is that I have no problem telling strangers Im undocumented. I know he wont stop loving me or anything if I tell him, it’s just too embarrassing for me.When we talk he's always giving me advice about getting a job,or how important it is for me to get my state Id.He even offers to teach me how to drive so that I could get my liscense.Every time he lectures me I see yeah your right or I just change the topic. I never ever tell him I cant do any of the above.If I do now Ill seem like a liar. My story is so sad.I met him when i was 13 going on 14(freshmen year) and he was 16.That first year was the best year of my life.Then the summer after my freshmen year of highschool my parents found out I was dating someone ,because I accidentally got a huge hicky on my neck.I know I know stupid me.They grounded me for a whole summer.My parents are Dominican and very strict on dating.I had to stay in my room,no phone ,no house visits,no going outside what so ever.I also had to deal with my mom calling me all kinds of sluts and whores.I went into major depression that summer because I just sat in a dark room for so long.Then when I was almost of punishment at the end of the summer they found out who it was that I had been dating.Troy,the black boy from around the corner.They almost killed me.Im mean seriously my Dad beat the crap out of me.It was his first time ever laying his hands on me,all because my boyfriend was black.I had to lye and say we had broken up.Meanwhile my boyfriend stuck by my side throughout the whole thing.He used to write me letters everyday and throw it in my window.He would come to see me whenever my parents left me alone for even 5 minute.When school started he would come pick me up from school and walk me home.My sophomore year was so hard.My parents didnt ease up on their strictness and my moms verbal abuse got worse. I kept getting even more depressed. My grade started dropping, I was sleeping all the time in school.I lost a lot of friends. I even started cutting myself. Please don’t think I went all crazy because I couldnt be with a guy.I just hated myself and my life in general.My sister who is an american got to go on many vacations to dominican republic while I had no choose but to stay in this hell hole I call my home. Thankfully, I still got to see my boyfriend everyday by sneaking around.He was all I had to keep me sane. Little by little my parents started giving me my privileges back because they thought me and troy had decided to just be friends. Till this day they don’t know I’m still with him.The stroy gets sadder.Im out of highschool, in my freshmen year of college and Troy has moved away. He went upstate to get his life together and left me all alone. He asked me to go move in with him soon, but guess what I cant? Why? Because I don’t have a ss# and how else will I be able to get a steady job to support myself upstate.And because I don’t get financial aid and my dad pays my tuition for me. If I leave this house especially for "el moreno" that they hate I think they will disown me.

sorry for writing so much I just wanted to get my story out there.Oh and if you need help with anything I willing to help you.

That is some story Brenda... I hope your family will learn to accept your boyfriend, he sounds like a good person. I can deffinitely say I've been lucky in terms of my parents. They might not get along with each other (recently divorced actually), but I do get along with both of them. I have their complete trust in everything. For a while (since I was 14 years old or so) I've been doing pretty much whatever I want and they never questioned me much. I really dont believe in strict parenting or pampering on the other hand, its just a matter of being a good parent. Beating your kid because she is dating someone is overkill in my book although I would be pretty pissed if my 13 year old came home with a hicky.