North Carolina likes Undocumented Students

Well, this is from the News and Observer, all of it, so all credit belongs to them and the writer of the article, Kristin Collins. I’m busy now, I have a new Xbox 360, but I couldn’t pass the opportunity to post this. Stuff in bold is added by me for emphasis.

RALEIGH - The state Attorney General’s Office says it’s legal for the N.C. Community College System to admit illegal immigrants.

That advice, given to the colleges Thursday and made public today, represents a reversal for the office of Attorney General Roy Cooper, which advised the colleges in May to bar illegal immigrants from degree programs. The colleges took that advice and issued a new policy prohibiting illegal immigrants from enrolling, even at out-of-state tuition rates. Cooper’s office said at the time that post-secondary education might qualify as a public benefit to which illegal immigrants are not entitled under federal law.

But on Monday, Cooper’s office got a letter from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in response to a request for clarification of the law. The letter, from former Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph, who now works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that admission to colleges is not considered a public benefit under federal law.

Federal officials made the same statement to the News & Observer in May, but officials with the community colleges and the Attorney General’s Office said they wanted to wait for a formal letter.

J.B. Kelly, general counsel, advised the colleges in a letter Thursday that it is up to them to decide whether to admit illegal immigrants.

Community College System President Scott Ralls was not immediately available for comment on whether he would lift the ban on illegal immigrants.

Now, I’m pretty happy about this decision and you know what I do when I’m happy. I play video games. Not only that, but I laugh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS. Maybe the people from NC aren’t as bad as I thought they were.

Lack of Understanding?

I was recently asked a question about my relationship with my girlfriend. Is my immigration status a hindrance  of sorts? Is she capable of understanding what I go through?

I answered that no one is capable of understanding what I go through, she is no exception. Only people like myself can understand what it is to live like this. I don’t care about her any less because of her lack of understanding though. Nor do I resent any of my friends who know what I am because they don’t understand. It is a fact of life I have to live with, one I’m accustomed now going towards my third year of college. Aside from 2 others individuals, no one out of 17,000 students is like me. If I wanted friends who would understand me completely, than I wouldn’t have any, let alone someone to date. That is what makes one feel alone, but you know, I’ve learned to live with it. Pain and solitude hurt, but giving up and quitting lasts forever.

I also understand that my friends go through things that I probably don’t understand, mainly because I’m so far away from the norm in many ways. I try my best as I’m sure they try their best to understand me, the street goes both ways to some extent.

So, is my relationship harder or a hindrance or bad in comparison to other multiracial relationships where documentation is not an issue? I would wager that it is not, it just has different worries with different solutions. I’m glad that I was able to find someone who is kind and understanding to the best of her abilities. One of the perks of my relationship is that I’m able to tease her about being so very unpatriotic because she is dating me. We get good laughs out of that.

Our Stories

Do you know how it feels to be unwanted? Do you know how it feels to be a burden? To be unknown and untruthful? Do you know how it feels to be invisible? Do you know how it feels to be not understood. To live in the shadows and in fear? Being undocumented is that and so much more. Try to understand us and watch, we only want to be accepted.

Who We Are

Who are we? We are you, obviously. We are like your children in every way, shape or form. I play with the Nintendo Wii and the PS2, I go to school and try to do well, and I try to have fun with my friends and girlfriend. That’s who I am. That’s who your son is as well as your daughter. You, the antis, trying to paint us as different cannot work. We are like you, and we probably know more than you do about this country.

It is a point that bothers me a lot, the fact that we are painted as being different by the other side by the decisions our parents made. It’s crazy. Insane. Loco. Take a look at the following person, Cecilia, from Arkansas, she is just another student. She plays the flute, played softball, works at a grocery story, and volunteers with a youth group. I’m describing a lot of the college going population with that last sentence. And yet, we are different, because we are being made different by the other side.

We have been deemed less worthy than our companions. We are being treated like dirt when we are not, treated like we are uneducated but we are certainly not that. Among us are scientists, writers, teachers, mathematicians, lawyers and more, and it is time for people to see that, to disperse the sky filled with clouds vitriol and hate from the other side. That’s what it is, vitriol and hate, racism, prejudice, dehumanization, because only through those means can anyone try rationalize the punishment of a group of people that are undocumented students for the decisions of their parents.

If only you took time to know us, to allows to show you that all the stereotypes and such are lies. But what else can I say, right? I’m talking in the wind, and I hope this message gets picked up by uneducated ears, let me tell you, not all immigrants are bad, especially those who didn’t choose to come here.

Undocumented students have a degree of anxiety

This article is from the LA Times, I’m posting the entire thing. I embolden some letters for emphasis. My comments will be ( ) and italicized. Here is the link for the original article.

Undocumented college students endure hardships over their status, then see an uncertain future.

By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2008

He took 15 AP classes (HOLY GOD, that’s amazing and insane) in high school, and kicks himself for passing up two others. Now, he is graduating from UCLA, with a double major in English and Chicano Studies and a B-plus grade point average.

But for all his success, Miguel does not share the full-bodied exuberance of the graduating seniors who marched last month five abreast into Pauley Pavilion, belting out the ’60s hit “Build Me Up, Buttercup.” A native of Puebla, Mexico, he is an illegal immigrant.

Around the UCLA campus, ubiquitous kiosk signs encourage students to “Jump Into Great Jobs!” But for Miguel, any employment will be difficult. Like many undocumented students, he may elect to prolong his studies to stave off an uncertain future.

“When you’re in school you have a place in society, you’re a university student,” Miguel, 23, said during an interview at a campus coffee spot on graduation day. “When you graduate, you’re just an immigrant again.” ( I know the feeling on that regards, it almost happened to me after high school).

Miguel and other students, who asked that their full names be withheld for fear that they or their families could face federal action, are caught between contradictory U.S. immigration policies.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitled illegal immigrants to public education from kindergarten through high school; 50,000 to 70,000 graduate from U.S. high schools each year (California’s share, by some estimates, is 40%), according to experts. But the students’ access to higher education has not been guaranteed by the courts and Congress.

Over the last seven years, California and nine other states have encouraged undocumented college students to pursue higher education by offering many who graduated from California high schools in-state tuition. California public universities do not ask about legal status on applications. Some private universities, including Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara, have scholarships tailored for illegal immigrants. They are not entitled to most financial aid or loans at public colleges.

Their numbers at the university level remain low. The UC system had an estimated 271 to 433 undocumented students, out of total enrollment of 214,000, in 2006-2007, the latest figure available, a spokesman said.

But attending college, and even doing splendidly, does nothing to alter these students’ illegal status. (I’ve met people who think me being at my university changes things, it doesn’t). A proposed federal law called the Dream Act would have offered a pathway to citizenship for many college students and members of the military. But supporters last year were unable to secure enough votes to prevent a filibuster of the bill.

Opponents said the students are looting limited educational resources that should go to citizens and legal residents.

“To these students, I say I hope you return to your home country right away,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), “and I hope you repay what you have spent of other people’s money. It’s a horrible crime.”

Students have come far

Advocates argue that it’s inhumane and counterproductive to ostracize students who have come so far with so little.

“These students have been here since they were small children, and we’ve done everything to encourage them to stay in school and help them prepare for college,” said UCLA Asst. Vice Provost Alfred Herrera of the Center for Community College Partnerships. “The sad reality is most of these students are the best and the brightest.”

And if history is any guide, they aren’t leaving. Some, instead, remain in school.

Living off academic stipends, scholarships and a steady diet of ramen, these students play out an endless “Groundhog Day” script of school applications, research projects and degrees.

“They mostly hang around colleges, assistantships, getting paid to do surveys. It’s not employment, it’s catch-as-catch can,” said Michael Olivas, an expert on immigrants in higher education who teaches at the University of Houston Law Center.

“I think continuing your studies is the best option for us now,” said Tam Tran, 24, who heads to Brown University this fall for a five-year doctoral program in American Civilizations.

Born in Germany to Vietnamese parents, Tran has a complex immigration history: a U.S. immigration board in 2001 found that her family faced political persecution in Vietnam for past anti-Communist activities, but ordered them deported to Germany.

Germany, however, would not take them. The nation only recognized as citizens children born on its soil to German parents.

She said she would have liked to stay at UCLA, maybe go to film school. But the public university can’t give her aid, while both Brown and Yale universities offered generous packages.

Robert Lee, professor in the Department of American Civilization at Brown, said the university is not bothered that Tran might be unable to work in the U.S. in her academic field. “Even as students, they’re producing important academic product,” Lee said. “We don’t train all students to become university professors; they might end up working for an NGO [non-governmental organization], or a film producer . . . or in government service, maybe not in the U.S.”

‘Miley Cyrus Americans’

Stephanie, 22, drops out roughly every other quarter towork at low-paying jobs like making cardboard boxes.

“The reason I don’t feel bad about it taking me so long to get through is that as long as I’m a UCLA student, I can say, ‘We’re on our way, we’re up-and-comers,” said Stephanie, over dinner recently at a Japanese restaurant.

Stephanie’s parents brought her here at age 4, after the disco craze dissolved in the Philippines, leaving her father, a lighting installer, without a job, she said. Her parents only told her she was undocumented when she tried to transfer to UCLA, she added.

“What people don’t get is we’re Miley Cyrus Americans,” said Stephanie, an aspiring writer and copy editor. “English is the only language I speak.”

A story about Stephanie in the Daily Bruin newspaper earlier this year drew scant sympathy. Stephanie “has a choice to make: become a legal resident or continue to live a life of deferring the task her parents should have taken care of years before,” a letter to the editor said.

Stephanie and Miguel said they would risk deportation if they sought legal status.

Even the most prestigious academic posting has not shielded students from immigration authorities. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a classics scholar, Princeton salutatorian and illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was able to pursue a masters at Oxford University without facing possible exclusion upon his return only through an intense legal and publicity campaign, his lawyer, Stephen Yale-Loehr said. Yale-Loehr is an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School.

As it is, Padilla was able to obtain only a temporary waiver and visa so he could travel to the U.S. during summer and vacations to work on a research project for Princeton.

“Naturally the uncertainty over my status has been a source of anxiety,” Padilla said in an e-mail from Oxford. “But I’ve tried to keep that anxiety quite separate from my academic and extracurricular pursuits. I feel enormously privileged to have studied first at Princeton and now at Oxford.“

This same optimism pervaded speeches at a small graduation ceremony arranged by the UCLA chapter of IDEAS, a campus support organization for students, documented and undocumented, who receive the in-state tuition exemption.

About 10 students talked about life as an “Underground Undergrad” (the title of a book undocumented UCLA students released this spring): the two- to three-hour commutes, crashing on couches, eating only if somebody could sneak them into the dining hall. Several said they were hopeful the Dream Act will be reintroduced soon, and this time pass, opening the door to legalization.

But mainly, they expressed gratitude for their education.

“I choose not to place the burden [of my situation] on everyone,” said Matias Ramos, another graduating senior, whose grandmother flew in from Argentina for the event. “I have had the blessing of encountering a lot of people who’ve helped me.” (So have I).

“A lot of stereotypes that linger on, we break all of them,” said Miguel. “All of us are very assimilated and we’re very proud of it. . . . We’re driven by huge optimism.”

But as she cleared cut fruit from the refreshment table, Tran grew wistful.

“We’re always in a position where we’re oppressed and privileged at the same time,” she said. “I wonder if getting a PhD in American studies is going to prove I’m an American?”

Education and Colleges

I would just like to say thank-you to the schools that have answered the call on regards to immigration and have deemed it fit to accept people like me. Thank-you for standing up for people who have no one to stand up for them. I wish my school could do more but alas, it can’t.

As for those schools who say, oh, we feel that it is a great injustice that kids are getting put in limbo but we can’t do anything about it because we are afraid of what could happen to our money. I say this to you, get some f*****g b***s and do something. Instead of standing in the sidelines, do what you think its right. I understand it coming from public universities and us, it is a sticky issue but if you are private, I feel sorry and angry at you.

Virginia and Discrimination

I’ll just post the entire article. This is ridiculous.

With college acceptances and deposits already mailed, this is an exciting time of year for most high school graduates. But not everyone can join the celebration. Some graduating students are unable to attend college because they have been denied in-state tuition. Why are some U.S.-born Virginia residents being denied access to college?

It’s not because of their immigration status, but because of their parents’.

One of these citizens caught up in this problem is Jamilla Penarete. Two years ago, as a senior in high school, Jamilla was accepted at George Mason University. But after registering for classes, she found out that despite the fact that she was born and raised in Virginia, she was being charged out-of- state tuition rates, three times the amount she expected to pay as a Virginia resident. Jamilla was told that because she applied as a dependent student, as most just-out-of-high-school students do, her parents’ undocumented immigration status counted against her. As a U.S. citizen, Jamilla can vote, join the Army and be called for jury duty. She pays federal and state taxes. But in her home state of Virginia, she was considered ineligible for in-state tuition.

This outcome is the result of two ill-applied legal provisions.

• First, Virginia law creates a presumption that any college student under 24 years old is their parents’ dependent. As such, it is the parents’ eligibility to establish domicile in Virginia that counts for in-state tuition purposes, not the student’s.

• Second, even though Virginia law does not say that undocumented immigrants are ineligible to establish domicile, the Virginia attorney general’s office has interpreted the law in this manner for many years.

These two factors have created a legal problem that directly affects American students, with devastating consequences.

Jamilla tried to cover tuition costs but eventually found it was too much to bear and had to stop attending school after the first year. She had to take two jobs to pay the debt she incurred during that one year, and put off returning until she can afford it. She recently filed a new application for in-state tuition with George Mason University, seeking to resume her college education this fall; the application was denied at the initial review level. Jamilla appealed, and was just recently informed by George Mason that she is being reclassified as an in-state student. She plans on attending this fall.

Jamilla’s story is not an isolated case. Another Virginia- born student was offered admission to the University of Virginia this year, with out-of-state tuition. Because this student could not afford the higher tuition rates, he thought he had no choice but to attend a community college. Fortunately for him, a memo from the Virginia attorney general’s office on this issue was released in March. This memo prompted UVa. to review his situation and grant him in-state tuition. The memo reminded colleges that under state law, it is possible for a dependent student, in extraordinary circumstances, to have a different domicile than his parents’.

The situation of these American students who have lived most of their lives in Virginia is one of those extraordinary circumstances.

What can be done to correct this injustice? The Virginia General Assembly must clarify the law to make sure that no U.S. citizen in Virginia is denied in-state tuition because of his parents’ immigration status.

Another possible solution is in the hands of the Virginia attorney general’s office. The situation started because the office has interpreted state law to justify denying in-state tuition to undocumented students. He could easily fix this problem by changing the reasoning for denying in-state tuition to undocumented students, so that U.S.-born students’ eligibility for in-state tuition would no longer be linked to their parents’ immigration status.

The original article is here.

Fears of an undocumented immigrant

Some time ago, my girlfriend and I started to list my fears. She wants me to go swimming (pool or beach) and skating (ice or normal) and I’m very adamant to do so. More like terrified really. On regards to swimming, I don’t know how to swim and I’m afraid of drowning and as for skating, when I was in the sixth grade, my class took a trip to an skating rink and I feel on my ass so many times I still feel the pain.

Of course, those are not my only my fears. Some of my other fears include that of clowns, specially the one from the McDonald’s commercials. This is what happens when you watch the movie It when you are too young. Snakes are another fear of mine, but I think that’s pretty common.

My biggest public fear is the one of heights. I still remember to this day the way I felt when I feel down the damn fence when I was crossing. I felt totally helpless, out of control, just floating. All of that was followed by a whole a lot of pain. To this day, I can barely stand heights so I always try to keep my feet on the ground. Not that I can fly or get off the ground, that would be bad.

Other fears include that of ICE and deportation. This fear makes me squirm whenever a cops is near my house or dorm. I don’t drive and would be very terrified of doing so.

I have another fear. A fear I’ve had ever since I started being friends with American people, people who don’t know what I go through. Am I good enough to be their friend? I’ve always felt like an outsider. Always. To this day, I still feel like that. Feel very much alone. I’m afraid that the friendships that I value very much will be forgotten once my time is over. My time will soon be over soon, May 2010 if my predictions are correct. Will I be forgotten. I won’t forget anyone, I never do, to this day I still remember my friends from Mexico from when I was 10. I’m afraid that I’m not making a positive difference in my friends’ lives, and feel like a burden. I don’t know if I am. Maybe its all in my head.

But my biggest fear now though, it comes in nightmares. It is a terrifying thing to have it happened, and now it can happen to me. I’m afraid, and it will be my fault to some extent. A vision that keeps repeating over and over again, a vision that I will not share here or with anyone. A vision of heartbreak.

But that vision will be overtaken by something far more worse, uncertainty. Uncertainty because that is what my life is about. My days are numbered. But before then, I have some things I have to do, some things that I started working on already. If my end is to come, I’ll have it come on my own terms for as much as I can. But for now, I’ll continue living as far as I can and as well as I can. It’s about the only thing I can do now.

Why Suicide?

Why is the suicide worst among Hispanics. Well, the following study attempts to answer that but I will go into more detail. Well, I can easily answer that as someone who has almost committed suicide and now recuperating with medication. Life isn’t easy for an undocumented student. Well, I can’t speak for the entire Hispanic population because I’m different but I can speak with some authority about undocumented students because I am one.

Why was suicide the answer. Believe me when I say that being one of three undocumented students at a school that houses almost 18,000 undergraduate students, the pressure is to the maximum to succeed and to basically not fuck it up for those who might following. In my case, I knew that if I did badly, it would like badly for all undocumented students trying to follow on my footsteps because the administration would just say that because I failed, all would fail. There is no such thing as failure in my life. Then there is the issue of trust and privacy. How can I live in a place where everyone is different to me in the most fundamental ways like freedom to drive, to travel, to live in peace, to not have nightmares and not be stressed 24/7. Believe me, I am stressed 24/7, my balding head (I’m 19) is proof to that. Who could I trust? Who could I tell my secret to? Living as an undocumented student is like living a lie almost, because you have to pretend to be like everyone else, certainly act like it, when in reality you are not.

How can one not feel sad and hopeless when you see in the news and the Internet that you are being called scum, among other things, for the simple fact of being something that you didn’t even choose to be. It affects the psyche and self-esteem. Hopefully though, as things get worse, they will eventually get better. Things have gotten better for me, because I found great friends and people I can trust. And my grades have gone up which makes my life easier.

Oh NO! I stole an American’s university seat! Or did I…

Well, I don’t usually say that but someone commented on my old blog sometime ago about the subject. This is the comment.

“Freshman year was hard because you don’t deserve to be there based on merit, and stole a spot from some LEGAL kid who does. Got it now — you grew up in some ethnic slum, you showed some potential, and your guidance counselor checked the “diversity” box so the admissions look “balanced”, and now you’re struggling because you can’t cut it. You make me PUKE.”

So, its not me making the accusation that I stole something, it’s the anti-immigrant people naturally. Well, I don’t believe that I stole anyone’s seat at my university. I earned it because I had a kick ass GPA and lots of extracurricular activities. I didn’t grow up in an ethnic slum, I lived in a nice neighborhood. Well, I can’t help that I’m Latin-American, what am I supposed to do in that regard. So, if an American is missing out at being in this university, all I can tell you is that you didn’t try hard enough. That’s why I was accepted, I tried my hardest and had luck in the regards that the policy of my university is one friendly to people like me.

As for school being hard, if it is hard enough for some American kids, imagine what it must be like for someone like me. Its not pretty, that’s all I can I say about that. I can cut it, as my improving GPA has shown, and continues to rise above the problems I had on my freshman year.

As for making someone puke, well, the person hasn’t even seen a picture of me so I don’t know where he/she got that idea from. My girlfriend and other friends think I’m alright though. Actually, it would be funny if the next thing I hear is that I’m stealing an American girl from an American guy.

An undocumented university student view of the world

Well, it’s been over three months since I started writing this blog. I like it. Love to write. I decided that I’m also going to take a break from my own personal writing and just concentrate on blogging. Fortunately, I don’t have any more stories due for my writing class. I’ll get back at writing during the summer, when I have time and energy to devote to writing.

My views of the world have changed slightly, if they have, it has been on the personal front of my life. Life is random I guess. But I’m still a university student. I still have to do work and such, or really, procrastinate and then do work as everyone else does. And I’m still undocumented. Not that I expected that to change in the last 3 months.

My ability to deal with the frustration has been breached because of something that happened with some of the school administrators here. They have the mentality of ‘wait’. For those who personally have never waited, it might be easy to say. For those of us who actively wait, we can’t really do so anymore. Time passes too slowly for us. But the fight must continue on I suppose. Always.

It is getting harder I suppose, to hide the sadness behind the smiles. To hide the dis-functionality behind my supposed normalness. Normalness? I still do well with it I guess, playing video games and such. I have to admit, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is a great game, very fun, but I don’t play as much as I should. Haven’t played it in a couple of days actually. Sometimes things like that seem meaningless in the overall context of things. I’m getting quite tired of the school paper have things about immigration too, most of the comments online seemed to be negative, just like every other paper out there. I mean seriously people, why do all anti-immigrants usually have to have a pissing contest over who can be meaner to immigrants. Get a life people, a girlfriend or something, a Wii if you can find one. They are fun. I’m just getting quite tired of a lot of things. The pretending though, one day is going to get where I won’t be able to pretend or the fact is that, I’ll feel really uncomfortable around some of the things that could be talked about. It is getting harder by the day and it will just continue being like that. But that’s okay right, this is the life I lead and should suck it up.

My undocumented view of the world will still be the same in the years to come, I bet. I hope I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong about some predictions, like me going to college. That was never going to happen according to my predicting abilities and yet here I am. And there are other things I was wrong about. But that view, the undocumented view, can be quite depressing at times unfortunately.

On Censorship…

In my Spanish class, we have been talking about censorship and the like. So, I’ve decided that I will give my opinion on my blog. Why not right? Well, my opinion is that I believe in the total freedom of speech. Total. In order to be a true democracy, a strong one, we have to he be able to tolerate the intolerable. That means we have to tolerate the assholes who are racists and the ones who are calling for the shooting and extermination of undocumented immigrants. That’s fine. I believe in freedom of speech. Sure, go ahead I say, let them talk all they want but as soon as they take any action against a particular group, put their asses in jail.

It is not the prettiest position to put oneself in. After all, there are some really intolerable people out there. I hate them, what they say about me and granted, it is not the healthiest of environments to grow up in. After, being called scum and the like is not good for the self-esteem. It comes wit the territory, it shouldn’t have to but life is not perfect. I don’t wish to censor them though, because that would take out the fun in beating down their ignorant hurtful views.

Censorship is bad obviously; information is the lifeblood of any democracy. The media needs to be unbiased and right, unlike some networks that I could mention that are not. I guess that’s why I like 1984 so much, it is a warning against what could happen if we go down the road of fascism. If this country does take that path, I pack my bags and leave. One thing is to be undocumented and having certain lifestyle impose on you by ignorant people but another thing entirely is to just live in a police state. Thanks but no thanks.

But that’s my opinion in the matter. I guess I should think more about it. I’m just ranting. Big exciting news coming later in the week though, stay tuned…

The line between Privilege and Marginalization…

Oh yes, the line becomes very clear when I’m at home like I was, for the last weekend. On the way back home, my dad and I saw some cops. There was an accident but for my dad and I, those are scary moments. I instantly knew I was no longer at my university. I was back to being what I really, an undocumented person.

I could no longer pretend to not be. I could give up the tiring charade that I put for everyone back to the university. I could give up the acting. That’s all it is, as much as it hurts me to say it. To pretend to be like them when inside I’m on the verge of screaming about how life is not fair. But I don’t do that, I don’t mope in my own damn sadness. Not in front of them, I try my best not to. Nope, I act cheerful and laugh. That’s really all I can do at this situation, laugh. Laugh at the injustice, the slaps in the face, the people saying no to a lot of things. Laugh at my dream deferred.

This job is a lonely one, both at the university and at home. At the university, I carry a psychological solitude and at home it is a physical one, on account that I can’t drive and go places. A psychological one is a heavier burden, because I know I’m not alone, I have a lot of friends but it is not the same. Never will be. It is something I have to live with, with the knowledge that whenever I do come out and say I’m undocumented, I’ll be gone. I’ll be forgotten after the media shitstorm unleashed.

So, in the end as I’ve come to learn, I stand alone in the consequences of my actions. I stand alone in the choices I have to make. I don’t know when I’ll have to make that choice, I almost did recently. But for now, I’ll remain as I have always been, a shadow. I know I will speak out; I have to. I refuse to surrender to a situation I didn’t create. I refuse to back down against the odds, never have, never will. I refuse to go quietly into the night.

Last Post…

So, I’m sorry I haven’t had much time to post. I’ve been sick. My memory card for the Nintendo Gamecube games was corrupted. So…I lost about 40 games worth of data and god knows how many hours of game time. So I’ve been mourning it. A lot. I’ve also had to write a short story and I hate it. Despise it. My class is going to hate me.

As for the title, maybe not the last post for sure. Yes, the anti-immigrants have changed my mind. They have convinced me of the fact that I’m the scum of the earth and should be deported, or better yet, be shot. Now excuse me while I laugh…a lot.

No, of course the anti-immigrants have not defeated me. No. I have been given the opportunity to write for another blog and will do so. I’ve come to the realization that I won’t be able to keep both this blog and write for the other at the same time, everyday. The other blog will be a lot bigger than this one, and I won’t be the only writer. The focus will be immigration of course. As for this blog? Well, I want to say that I will discontinue it but I won’t. I will update it from time to time, maybe once a week from now on or something. I don’t want to be focused on movie trailers or video games either so I don’t know what I’ll write about. Maybe about myself and American side of me. You know, my normal life.

Anyways, I don’t want to get all mushy now. I really liked this blog and writing. I want to thank all of my readers for the patience that you had with my bad grammar, and for the encouraging comments. Especially a big shout out to those who backed me up in the comments against the anti-immigrants. And as for the anti-immigrants who commented, thank you for raising my popularity and raising my hits. Don’t worry, I never commented on your sites and never will. Haha, you probably thought I had been deported haven’t you. No, not yet anyways.

As for the new site that I’m working on, write a comment and I’ll let you know what it is. I’ll give out a hint about it though, and the saying goes, this a brave new world isn’t it? With such people in it…

I’ll be back here some time later and this is not the last time you’ve heard of me. Peace!

And…I chose…

I finally declared a major. I am no longer majorless and say that I’m a bum going from class to class with no direction in life. I am now a bum with English and History as my directions in life. I could have gone with Spanish and could still do so I guess but I already know Spanish. Anyways, just wanted to let people know because I’m quite happy I finally chose something before advising yelled at me for my indecisive ways. And yes, I do despise math and science. I find those subjects boring, but hey, that’s just me. Anyways, if you are reading this, tell me any advice you might have if you are an English or History major. Or both.