Immigrant

I froze. I didn’t know what to say, because in these cases there isn’t much you can say.

You clean your tears, you toughen up, and plan to work hard. We didn’t and we don’t have time to sit around and ask God and the universe why this happened to us. Why us? It happens to a lot of people. We are immigrants, undocumented, brown, and with an accent. We are proud assertive warriors who don’t quiet down when we see injustices. Those were all the qualities and the reasons why my dad had lost his job he had now had for over ten years.

I froze because despite how valuable my dad is, despite his work, and despite how hard he had tried to help the company he worked for succeed, he had been fired.

All I could think of as I processed this in my mind was how many more kids I could fit into my schedule for therapy, how much work I could do on the weekend, and that law school was now definitely on hold.

None of these thoughts made me angry, disappointed, or sad. All I could think of was, how is my dad doing right now? Is he going to be okay? I want him to be happy, and it is my job to make this less stressful than what it already must be.

As an immigrant, all I could think of was and is: we will survive. This too shall pass.