Well, for one, I recently got back from a two-day retreat with the IDEAS (Improving Dream Equality Access and Success) Club at the Claremont Colleges, the undocumented student and ally, advocacy and support group for immigrant struggles. I realize that I am extremely blessed to be surrounded by a group of incredibly thoughtful and loving individuals who share a lot of the same experiences that I have been through around immigration status.
Before coming to college, I felt extremely weird talking about my immigration status, since I did not know how people would react or what that would bring to my relationship with them. I grew up having learned to keep my immigration status as discrete as possible, and coming to college has helped me unlearn over fifteen years of veiling this part of my life. I love that I can come to a community of folks who often times wear their status with pride, and I love that I can finally acknowledge how much being undocumented has formed part of my life, and how much it continues to grow into my identity.
I love how much more I can appreciate simple relationships now. Especially at a place like Pomona College, where there exists a culture of business, which often leads to an “I will talk to you as long as our interaction will benefit me in some way” mentality. I have come to really cherish the people who I can simply sit down with, either have a very deep conversation with, or not. I love being able to make the space in the middle of a very hectic academic week to just bask in the presence of good friends sometimes.
Among other things, I love being able to connect with other people of color who also attended predominantly white high schools, and make sense of our experiences together. I love that being around such loving and compassionate friends, I have been built up. I love that I have learned to validate my own experiences, to have more self compassion, and to share it with others.
I love that college has been a time for self-exploration. I love that my worldview has been challenged, that I am about to do a reading on “Spirituality and Resistance” for homework, that I have come across some incredibly wonderful people in this place who I know are genuinely concerned for my well being, that I have family I can call, pictures I can look at, letters I can read, to remind me of why I am here when the going gets tough.