Hello

I'm really cautious about how much to put here, especially when thinking about how selfish it might be to share my own situation while my family members could be severely affected if something did happen and I was "discovered."

I'm not sure how to feel, I think I should be thankful for all the opportunities and life I've had since I've moved here. I came to America when I was about 6 or 7 with my mom, with my dad coming later on. We started off in someone's basement I believe, then found some relative's apartment where we stayed for a couple years. Funny enough, I remember one of my earliest memories there was watching a VHS tape of Toy Story. I learned what the word Friend meant in that movie. To this day it is still one of the things I cherish and value most.

I was in ESL in elementary school for a year or two, but then since I was young it was very easy to speak the language and soon enough I found myself in some advance courses and such. Fast forward to high school and sophomore year, and the bomb was dropped on me. I was one of only 3 people in my Driver's Ed class to pass the written test and get his little signed thing to go get a permit from DMV. I never saw it since that day nor the DMV, and I never brought it up again till now.

Senior year was terribly difficult, you know how it is. Everyone is talking about colleges, universities, trips around the world, driving, new cars, and amazing jobs with good pay. I knew what the future held for me but I smiled along anyway. I did pretty good on my SATs, but after doing some research and looking at some applications...I became terribly disillusioned. I found out a cousin of mine went to a community college in my old home town and his situation is the same as mine, so I resigned myself to that. To be honest I would've done this anyway, community college is meant to be a way to save money and earn the same credits you'd gain anywhere else.

The price I saw though shocked me and my parents, but I knew I had to do what I could. I started off taking only 13 credits my first semester, that semester alone came out to be about 3.6k if I recall correctly. I had been working since I was 16 years old, so I had some money saved up but it was still difficult. My parents were struggling just to pay the mortgage on time, so I was used to the overcharge I'd receive everytime I'd make a payment. Spring semester came and I knocked down to 11 credits to give myself and parents some breathing room, transportation is hard enough to come across for a place that's 30 minutes driving away. I don't know how I'll pull off next semester with work and school with my mom's new work schedule, but most likely I'll end up risking my life and my family's by foolishly driving to school and work. I'm confident enough to know I can, but does that give me the right to risk my family?

I had some hope for this summer though, I could finally do what my parents did and get a license out of one of those states that didn't check that information out. I studied hard for the test, despite already passing the NJ one. I'd even gotten my friend to give me some driving lessons without revealing the whole of my situation. However nearing the day for the written test some law which I don't even care to mention was passed and all the appointments were canceled and nothing new would be made. My dad is in this situation right now, he's been working two jobs as long as I can remember and I am still deathly afraid of him driving around without a license, but what can we do.

I really hope I'm not coming off as bragging or boasting or anything...this is just my situation and I don't know how off to come about it. I've told my situation to about 2 friends ever, and even then I don't let them know just how badly it hurts inside.

To know that the only difference between them and I are some numbers.
To know that the American dream that is being denied is the same dream which made this country possible.
To know that the DREAM Act could be salvation to hundreds of thousands of kids who've grown up American, being called illegal as if we're here to make harm.

I could be anyone, but this is my story.

Thank you for sharing your story. Hang in there. Things will get better.

Hi!

First of all, I'm 100% new here too (just joined today!) and although I haven't read many other introductions, in my opinion you did not come out as bragging at all. Each of us here share a problem, but yet we're all different people =)

Secondly, I've been driving without a drivers license for almost a whole year now, I'm 19 and only carry my passport and id-less wallet with me. Thankfully I have never been stopped by the police.
While being completely unfair that I have to worry 10x as much while on the road, and not only worry about myself but every driver around me, while my friends are out being careless teenagers, doing burnouts, etc. It has had its only benefit of not bringing attention to myself.
My rule of thumb since day one was to follow more traffic laws than the police themselves.
- If it says 30mph, I go at 29 (Yes, I'm the guy people honk :P)
- I drive during the day ONLY (My theory for this is: 10000 cars on the road during day, 10 police cars, 1:1000 chance of being stopped, 1000 cars on the road at night, 1:100 chances of being stopped), so definitely try to stay away from night-drives (I know.. it sucks =\ ).
- Who ever you car is registered too, check with that person on a monthly basis to make sure everything is updated.
- And when ever you get a chance, check to make sure your break lights all work, its these stupid things that would get me in trouble for instance.

I'm far from being an experienced driver, but I know that while I'm in the wheel, my life and others (on the road) are at risk, so I've almost force-taught myself to drive better than people coming out of drivers ed.

Lastly, I am unaware of this, and hope for it to be false, but I am under the impression that the WORSE case scenario is you being deported, not your family member. And again, this is like.. worse of the worse. Best case that apparently happens a lot (after reading posts here) is the cop lets you go untouched.
When ever I'm behind the wheel, If I'm ever to get stopped, I would hope for a fine, as I know I'm breaking the law (rules are rules, no exception). But hopefully nothing worse.

After re-reading what I just wrote, I went a lot into the 'driving' part of it all, probably because of it being my freshest experience from it all, but I hope some of that helped.

It did help!, I mean it helped me
I hope you don't mind but I'm "copying" your rule of thumb.



Don't worry man, this year will be OUR year.

Not at all

There's not much to it, its the kind of thing where after a while you realize you're doing (I've driven behind cops before and seen them slow down but not stop at stop lights, etc. So I take it literally ).

If you're a new driver, the one thing you have to keep in mind (which sucks the most) is the "10x attention" rule. You can be the best driver in the world, but there will still be some idiot shaving while driving down the highway, who could hit you and come out just fine, while you receive the same punishment as being just as bad of a driver. So keep an eye on EVERYTHING, never text/talk while driving, etc. etc.

Even when I myself am reading that paragraph, and thinking of everything I do (or.. don't do) while driving, I can't stop thinking about how over-protective I am being. But that's the thing though, unfortunately in our case, there isn't an alternative, the worse isn't we lose points in our license. When those blue lights come on (and I hope it never does to anyone here), who knows what could happen. So be overprotective, it sucks but it works as a temporary solution to all of this mess.

Edit:
MAJOR brownie points for new drivers: Check out your states DMV website and download the study book for drivers ed, and go through it a few times (some DMV websites even offer a self-study quiz). Knowing basic road rules is a must, and one thing us undocumented miss by not attending drivers-ed. So read up on what signs mean, etc. and you should be as good as you'll get! (for now!)

Aww, that is too cute for words. You should get a t-shirt with that quote on it.

I'm pretty sure most people would consider it pathetic :P

Anyway thanks for the tips guys. I finally convinced my mom to let me show her I can drive one day in the near future, so after that I'll have to see what to do about getting an actual car or driving them to work haha. If I do buy one I'll probably have to miss out on a semester of school or something.