It’s graduation season, a moment when we often celebrate individuals who have made it through high school or college through hard work and perseverance. But for some folks, graduation isn’t just about them. It’s also about the “village” that it took to get them through college, to help them with payments, late night studying, to encourage them when they are down and stressed and to make sure that they keep going.
That was the case for this young woman, who decided to create some graduation photos that better represented her journey through college:
Mami, papi, we did it! After 22 long years of picking strawberries, nurturing the fresas, day after day, being kissed by the sun, I am finally your fruition today. I am the fresa you’ve worked so hard to preserve, to love, to nurture. Today, i am ready to be the sweetest thing you ever did grow. This degree is for the immigrant families that have crossed borders and who have thrived. mami, papi, this degree is ours, the strawberries can no longer claim you as their own.
*Brb, I seem to have caught some dirt in my eye.*
The student goes on to describe why she took the photos:
you know being a daughter of immigrant farm workers has always been a struggle. It wasn’t because i was ever ashamed of the work my parents did but rather the shame that others attributed to my parent’s method of survival. As soon as my parents got to this pinche country just a couple of months before my birth, my parents sought out a life where they’d bend themselves over backwards to provide some sort of sustainable life for my siblings and I.
now, being the first in my whole family to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree, i see where my drive lies. i understand the my necessity to pursue higher education is something that was unknowingly embedded in me since birth. ma parents know that my successes didn’t happen all by myself. every night of studying or writing an essay i remembered my mother waking up at 5am every day to be in the fields picking fresas by 6am. giving up was some weak shit for me. my education was my priority at all costs, sometimes even at the expense of my own mental health. year after year, i had to push through.
[…] this degree would be impossible without our struggle. i know this for a fact. my motivating factor has always been them. My bachelor’s done, now i gotta keep going, like my parents always do, like chingones always do.
Here’s to the students out there who are working their butts off to make it through systems that were not built for them to succeed. And here’s to the parents and loved ones who push them through it each day.
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