Despite the sacrifice, tears and sweat of my parents and older sister, everything could be taken away in any moment.

Hello, my name is Melina Saray Morales Aguilar. I am seventeen years old and an undocumented student at Bioscience High School. I was born in Puebla, Mexico and came to the United States when I was 9 years old. My parents wanted a better future for my siblings and me. A future where we didn’t have to give up education to start earning a living. A future where we could reach our goals and dreams. A future where we didn’t have to live to survive, but a life to live.

That’s when my parents decided to cross the border. When I first got here, to the United States, I saw everything through a filter. When my eyes overlooked the scenery, it automatically put a beauty filter on. Then, shortly after, it hit me. I’m here. Although I still looked at things with wonder, not everything was pretty. Sacrifices were made, we left everything we knew with the hope that our lives would change for better. That’s all I knew when coming here. At the age of 9 years old I crossed the border with hopes of having opportunities that I couldn’t in my birth country.

I was enrolled in school for the last two weeks of 5th grade. I didn’t know any English, I hadn’t adapted to the culture, and I didn’t know anyone there. While living in Mexico my only hope of having a better life was to do well in everything I did. So despite the new challenge that I was facing, I was determined to succeed. Once summer vacation started, my younger sister, who at that time had just finished 2nd grade, and I would sit together trying to learn as much English as we could. We would study everyday for 4-6 hours with an English workbook that one of the neighbors gave to my dad, by watching English speaking TV channels that my mom would put on, really anything we could do. That’s how I spent my first summer vacation while living in the United States, then the new school year started. I still had a lot to learn, but overall I was able to understand more than I did prior to that summer. From there, I continued to push myself to succeed academically and be proficient in English. However, the challenges don’t end there.

Through school I found out that my situation was a bit different than most of my classmates. They were citizens of the United States while I was not and while I didn’t exactly know what that meant I just thought that I had to work harder than anyone else. When watching the news I would hear about immigration, DACA, DAPA, and undocumented people. That’s when it clicked, I was an undocumented student, they were talking about me. I remember a TV station having a panel about DACA where the public was invited to. My parents heard about the program DACA and wanted to know if my siblings and I could qualify for it. So, we went to see the panel and fortunately there was an immigration lawyer on the spot who we could ask about the program. I arrived in the United States in 2015 at the age of 9 years old and I was told I didn’t qualify for the program. That means that even if I graduate high school I won’t be able to apply for it.

Then, during my Junior year I found out that because of my immigration status I don't qualify for many scholarships, internships, or in-state tuition. Because of my immigration status, I have been unable to take on opportunities. Despite the sacrifice, tears and sweat of my parents and older sister, everything could be taken away in any moment. It hurts to know that despite everything that we’ve been through, nothing is certain. Now looking back, I realize how I didn’t have time to be a child. I saw my parents and older sister sacrifice a lot of things for my younger sister, younger brother and me. And after we crossed the border I never had time to take in what had happened. All I thought about was about moving forward and making my family proud. I underestimated the impact that that experience would have on me. It wasn’t until years later that I started to assimilate what happened during my time in Mexico and moving to the United States, and even now I’m still healing.

I graduated from from Bioscience High School in May and will be attending Arizona State University in the Fall. Although the future is still uncertain, I keep hoping for a better future.