I am, as many of you, a DACA recipient. I was brought to the US when I was 13 and have living in the Chicago area for almost 11 years now. Its been a struggle specially before DACA, in 2010 I graduated high school, but being unaware of the financial struggle that was ahead I was caught unprepared and ended up falling into sadness and what I can describe as depression. This heavily affected my grades, but I managed to graduate from a community college with an associates degree. I now attend a four year univeristy and I am on my senior year. Financially, it has been a struggle, and my grades have been steady, but reduced by a small margin. I am so close to a 3.0 GPA overall!
Recently, I have been feeling sad and depressed, similar to when I was in community college, but I could not figure out why. I decided to start attending a counselor to figure out what is happening. Through counseling I learned that sharing my feeling is important and as a result I decided to look for other perhaps feeling the same way.
I would like to see if I am alone in this. I currently work part time and go to school for the weekdays. I aware aware of others who have multiple jobs, my question to you guys is, how do you keep motivated? And what is your story?
Tarzus,
I keep motivated by realizing that everything is out of my control. As weird as it sounds, it gives me peace. But also look around at all the support we are getting from University presidents, mayors, and a bunch of other people in power. I feel deep down that the U.S.A. will come through for us. This is another hurdle, not as bad as slavery/civil rights but definitely our generation's equivalent. And in those cases, America came out on top to treat people with respect and inclusiveness. It's hard to imagine that now but I feel we most of the time society takes a step back before the big leap forward. There is always pushback before things are fixed.
But bigger than all of this is the value of life. You have to be happy dude! Make those around you happy. Keep a smile even when you don't feel like smiling. You're not alone at all. Theres under 1 million of us DACA-ers. And around 11 million illegally in this country. How are you alone with those numbers?
