Liliana from Mexico

September 18, 2017

Voices That Matter Most

Family Re-Connection

Hello my name is Liliana I was born in Mexico and I am 16 years old. My favorite class is Math and I like playing softball. I came to the U.S. when I was nine years old. When I was in Mexico, I was always with my sisters and my mom. I use to see my dad only during Christmas because December was the only month that he didn’t  have that much work. My dad use to say, “The life I live, I do not want to give to my daughters.” Living in Mexico means working hard everyday but without seeing many changes.  My dad’s dream was the same as my dream, to have our whole family together.

When I came to the United States, I suffered because when I was in Mexico I was used to being with my sister always. I thought of her as my mom. Reconnecting with my mom was hard because I did not understand her.

Things also got worse because everyday I was just having complaints about my mom and my personality changed towards my mom because I was feeling hatred and anger toward her. Every time I did something for her, it was something wrong. So, I decided to be who I am and to show the person that is really me. “We have to fight to find our own life.” As a humans we pass through a lot conflicts in life, but we learn from them, and later on we live the experience to be more better than we are now.

When I started going to school my biggest conflict was not being able to speak English. The person that was always helping me with my homework was not with me. So I started missing my sister because every time that I needed help with something, she was there and when I got to the U.S. nobody was here for me.

Three years later my English greatly improved with the help of teachers, friends, and other people. My classes were at a higher level and I could now communicate with others. My grades were awesome in the first quarter.  Three years have also passed without my sister and my connection with my mom has not changed. I decided to talk to a counselor because these problems were not just affecting myself, but my grades, my personality, and the biggest important thing for me was my thoughts.  I started to talk to my sister about what was going, and she told me to don’t feel disappointed because it was not my fault. “We must learn to understand people older than us.” I learned it was helpful to talk to someone else about my feelings.

As a humans we pass through a lot conflicts in life, but we learn from them, and later on we live the experience to be more better than we are now.

The counselor and I and I kept talking, but she decided to talk to my mom too. My mom just told me that I was getting crazy. And I said, “WOW!!” How will things change if my mom does not help?” I decided that I needed to take care of myself. When I started doing so, everything changed for the better – my mood, grades, and health. My mom saw this too and she changed toward me. Both she and my father began to communicate with me more and were paying more attention to me.

Today, we still have our conflicts between my mom and I, but they are not anymore because of lack of communication. One thing I learned was that when you want something to change you have to fight no matter if you need to spend a lot time thinking how to solve your problem or go through painful things at the end you will be proud of yourself because  you learn things from it.

One dream for me is to become an immigration lawyer, as well an activist to fight for people’s rights, and give a stop to discrimination because we are all here equal. One thing I want graduates to keep in mind is that you always have to work hard to achieve your goals.