My GED

The story I most want to tell right now is about my GED. I never thought I would get it, but then again, I never thought I would drop out either. I don't have a lot to say about it, it's just one of the things that's happening. I don't really feel much about it, to be honest. I feel like I should probably feel more about it, like, feel more excited or happy or feel anything, but I don't know, it's weird. It doesn't feel very momentous; it feels more like an afterthought.   I think maybe if I had done it the traditional way it would feel better, but it feels like a given. More like tying up a loose end rather than a new beginning, you know? And I don't know, I really don't have plans for what I'm going to do after. I don't think I would be very good at college, but I also don't think my future would be very good without it. I try not to think about it. Which I guess is how I've done most things, by not really thinking, you know? So I guess the story I want to tell about my GED isn't really a story at all. I don't think I have another story though. I don't think everyone does. Sometimes it's life and watching TV and going to college and walking the dog but there's not really a story. There's not really a lot.   

~George Mendez

Jesus works in mysterious ways

The story I most want to tell right now is about how Jesus works in mysterious ways. I know that sounds really religious, and I'm not a very religious person, but I feel like I see the lord working more and more as I get older. And he's working personally more and more in my life. 

An example: my cat, Morty. Morty is about 16 years old now, which is insane because I don't have grandkids that are even that old yet. I think Jesus is keeping Morty alive. And I know that the last two statements must make me sound insane too, but I just think that as you get older, you start to see God taking more of an active role in your life. I wish I had known that when I was younger, but it was a nice surprise. 

As you know, I take your grandmother to church and back every weekend, and I see God acting in our lives too you know. Like how he took Barry from your grandma on Christmas morning, like he was calling one of his children home. It was odd, I think it was really odd, but that's the way things work. As an older person, I don't believe in coincidences, and I know your grandma doesn't either. That's how she' getting through things. As long as she thinks everything has a reason, it becomes digestible. If I had known that there aren't any coincidences when I was younger I think my life would have gone very differently. 
~Marina O'Connor

Your graduation

The story I most want to tell right now is about your graduation. I feel horrible that I'm missing it, and I feel even more horrible that you told me not to come. This must be weird, for you to read, since you're the one asking me the question, but I really have been thinking about how much I want you to walk. Especially with your brother and his situation, and your dad and his situation, and your grandma. I just think it's really important. I know you don't feel very close to Fordham or to the Bronx campus, but I really think you would regret not walking. I for one never had a graduation to walk at, and neither did your father. Even though the plane ticket will probably be expensive I think it'll be worth it. As a parent, this is all I want. Imagine one of your papers or projects, but one that takes 20 years to finish, and in the end, you don't even get to see what grade it got, you don't even get to turn it in. That's exactly how I feel (although I want you to know that you're not being graded). 

Aside from that, I don't have a lot of other stories. That's the thing I'm most thinking about. I know it seems casual for you, it seems expected for you to graduate, but for the rest of your family, that hasn't been a given. I mean, I guess there are other things. Your dad's cancer. Your brother is getting his GED, but you probably already know that by now. Even though it seems small, it's a big deal to me. It's always been a big deal to me. Watching you go out and do things. 
~Katharine

Rocks

The story I most want to tell right now is about rocks. I've been a paleontologist for all of my life. I went to Harvard after WWII, and I got my PhD after that, and I've been travelling and researching since the 1950's. It's taken me to Antarctica and Russia and China, and in the end, it's all about rocks. Everything I do is about rocks. It's admittedly weird, because rocks are the clichŽ we use when we want to describe something as boring. Rocks are the metaphor we use when something is stagnant, but to me, rocks are always changing. Minerals and organic matter are always being compounded, they're always changing and morphing and developing.  In my bedroom I have a case line of rocks. In fact, my whole house is filled with rocks, but the ones in my bedroom are the most special. They're the ones that I fall asleep looking at, and they're the ones that I first see when I wake up. This may be a stretch, but working with rocks has taught me that things always change- things are changing right now, and they're always going to continue changing forever, you just have to give them enough time.  

~Anonymous

FIU

The story I most want to tell right now is about FIU. 

I was born and raised in Miami. My parents are the particular generation of Cuban that came here and made an excellent life for themselves, not teaching their children Spanish for fear that it might socially or intellectually ostracize them. They were the particular generation of Cuban that didn't save the American dream for their kids, they went out and got it all on their own. I don't think they saved any for me. 

Florida International University is a good school, don't get me wrong, but my parents are both architects. They met in architecture school, and received fellowships to come to America and study here as architects. Both of them are really high achieving, and set really high standards. It's always been hard, because on one hand they are immigrants, and did come here for a better life, but it was never about creating a better life for their children to compensate for something they never had. They were some of the lucky ones in Cuba, so they had everything except for the fellowship. When they came here, it was for the fellowship, it was never for us. I am the child of immigrants, but I don't fit into that mold.

Especially being from Miami, there are so many immigrants here from all over the world, but mostly from the Caribbean and South America. I feel like immigrants from those areas sometimes try and vicariously live through their children, and I know that I don't have the pressure of parents trying to vicariously live through me, but it's still hard. I don't have any standards to live up to, not because they didn't give me any standards, but because my parents were fulfilled to begin with. 

I think my parent viewed me going to FIU as giving up. They would always talk about how getting into architecture school in Cuba was so competitive after the revolution, and about how careful you had to be with the government, but I don't know how much I care. They are my parents, and their past is my past, but they made such a conscious effort to make my brother and I feel so American instead of Cuban, so at this point, I find it hard to care. 

Don't get me wrong, I care about my parents, just not about being Cuban. That was their life, and this is mine. 

~Crista D'az

I'm a big coffee drinker

I'm a big coffee drinker. I need it first thing in the morning and no matter how sleep deprived or cranky I am, it always manages to cheer me up. Two days a week, I walk weary-eyed to the Metro North train station around 7:45am. During this walk, I pass a few coffee spots, including Starbucks. However, despite all of my options, I settle for the coffee & pastry cart outside of the train station.   A Spanish couple manage the coffee & pastry cart. Every time I see them, they greet me with a smile and say, "Como Estas?" I've purchased coffee from their cart in the pouring rain and in the midst of a blizzard. No matter how terrible the weather is, they still greet me warmly. The coffee is only $1.25, so I always give them some spare change as a tip. When I slide the money across the counter, the man pushes it back to me and says, "Too much! Only $1.25!" I always smile and say, "Keep it!" Him and his wife both smile as they add my tip to their jar. All it takes is a few extra cents to make their day. It's not much, but it goes a long way. By the time I board my 7:52am train, I am slightly caffeinated, but am fully satisfied in knowing that my few cents went a long way. That is how you start your day off on a good note. 

~Megan Mitchell

I've been around Fordham for as long as I can remember

I've been around Fordham for as long as I can remember. My dad emigrated from Ireland in '86 and began working at Fordham in the early 90s and he's been here ever since. I grew up in an Irish neighborhood in Yonkers where the majority of kids I knew were also first generation. When I was little my dad worked an early morning shift and was usually finished by 2pm. But, every now and then he would either work a double or switch a shift and he wouldn't be out until 10pm. On these occurrences, my siblings and I knew exactly what it meant -White Castle. My brother, sister, and I would wait up and hope to hear the phone ring around 9:45. My mom would answer and a few moments later ask us what we wanted our dad to bring us home. I remember eagerly waiting for him to come home with a bag full of greasy goodness. The five of us would sit around our kitchen table and stuff our faces with mini burgers and milkshakes. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I got to eat fast food late at night while most of my friends were probably asleep. This little family tradition is something that has always stuck with me. I like being able to remember a moment in time when such a simple thing could bring me such joy and happiness.    I'm not sure what the future will hold given our current state of affairs but it is my hope that my generation and those to follow can bring a new sense of compassion and understanding in order to better our society for all. 

~ Anonymous

When I returned home from a semester abroad

When I returned home from a semester studying abroad, it was the middle of my junior year. Spring semester is known as the prime time for a college business student to interview for internships and leadership programs that turn into post-graduate job opportunities. I felt a little behind on the task, and decided to reach out to a Fordham alumnus who held a position at Ernst & Young. 

After spending days agonizing on crafting the perfect email to send to a Partner that wouldn't be immediately discarded, I finally mustered up the courage to send it. In it, I explained my involvement in Fordham thus far and all my internship experience, hoping to impress him enough to get an informational interview with him.  A few days passed with no message from him in my inbox, and I figured it was a lost cause and that he was too busy to meet with a undergraduate student like me. But then he did answer, and the first line of the email was "anything for a fellow Fordham Ram."

Despite the effort I put into my email to him, all that mattered was that we both valued the Fordham connection that we shared. It wasn't the last time I heard that phrase during a networking event, and I look forward to using it as my own philosophy as I transition into the post-graduate world. 

~Anonymous

I am Chinese with dual citizenship in America and Hong Kong

I am Chinese with dual-citizenship in America and Hong Kong. I consider myself to be a terrible American because I've only lived in big cities. I have reverse-racism about suburbans because my only reference for them is the Jimmy Kimmel show, you know that segment where he goes out and questions people on the street? 
I've only lived in Metropolitan areas and the impressions my friends abroad have of America are of us being either the most beautiful or the most grotesque people. They have the idea of either extreme obesity or glamorous Hollywood types. Either Steve Jobs or Charles Manson. I don't know much about the stereotyped minority because I grew up in San Francisco, I've been blessed.

~Kirby

My neighbors are from Iran

My neighbors are from Iran, they just became citizens this past year, although they haven't gotten their papers yet. They are lovely people, but I'm afraid I don't know their last name. Their eldest daughter is in a dentist school in LA. She had graduated a dentist school in Iran, but her certificate wasn't good here, so she had to go back to school. The younger daughter isn't a citizen yet, even though she has a green card, because she's still in Iran right now. The family is scared to death that the younger daughter is going to get stranded in Iran now. The mother is a great woman, she says that as soon as her papers arrive in the mail, she'll come out protesting with me.

~Vivien

I am a dual citizen, both Russian and American

I am a dual citizen, both Russian and American. My mother just got her green card and my father has trouble entering the country, which is a shame. I'm protesting because I fight for humanity, I support everybody, which is why I'm against Trump's immigration ban. My dad likes Trump, we used to fight about Trump all the time, but recently my father's agreeing with me.

~Rodion

I am an immigrant, so are my parents

I am an immigrant, so are my parents. My father came here on the H1-B Visa (or whatever visa they gave for work) and then my mother and I followed. I grew up in Delaware after coming from the Hunan province in China. I had a good life there and here... I went to college at MIT and now I'm working as a software engineer. I still have a green card, but I don't want to become a citizen. I don't expect that the process will become harder under Trump, of all the countries I've visited, I still think that America is a good place. There is a lot of interest from Chinese people in traveling here, back and forth because they like it here. 
When I was growing up, we knew that we couldn't go back [to China]. That didn't affect me because I was a kid, I could make friends, but my mother would fight with my dad because she couldn't go back to see her family or friends. I didn't get to meet my grandparents until seven years ago. 

~Ray

I'm from Spain and I'm studying for a MFA

I'm from Spain and I'm studying for a MFA at Brooklyn College. I moved here in August on a students visa. I had to go through a series of offensive questions like 'have you recruited child soldiers?' in order to get my visa. (I haven't, by the way.) It took me 3-4 months to get a student visa and then I had to go into the embassy in Madrid (I'm from Barcelona, it's a long trip) for an interview. It cost $100 just to make an appointment for a meeting at the embassy and then I was waiting in a concrete room with no windows, and no phone (they take away phones at the embassy for security reasons) for two hours before I could be allowed a visa.

~Albert

I'm an immigrant and I came here as a child

I'm an immigrant and I came here as a child. Thankfully, I was able to achieve legal status and now I am a US citizen. Right now, I know a lot of people who don't have legal status in the states and they have kids [who are citizens]. I have parents ask me if I can take care of their kids if they are caught and deported. I was lucky to become legal and understand what they are going through, but it's still very scary.

~Erika

I am an activist journalist

I am an activist journalist and I went to Mexico 3 years ago to learn Spanish, it was a total culture shock. I met a girl who had come to the US as a child, she got caught by immigration when she was arrested at a protest in Texas. There's a law that if you are in jail for 3 days waiting for immigration, you are free to go, but they got her before that time expired. ICE came for her when she was only 18 but the rest of her family is still here. You wouldn't be able to tell that she's Mexican, perfect Spanish, perfect English, she still works for an American company that outsources to Mexico to this day.

I've been doing activist journalism for three years and I've met several undocumented immigrants, this one guy, the sweetest guy I know, became an undocumented immigrant because it was the safest way for him to come here, but now he can't leave the country even if he wants to. At least he's happy here. It usually takes six months of processing in order for a person from Mexico to come to the states, even to visit, because the government is so against anyone coming here, but for us we just need our passports because the Mexican government benefits from American tourism.

~Matt

I'm an Indian from Mumbai

I'm an Indian from Mumbai, which was formerly known as Bombay. I'm 39 years old and my father left for the states when I was 1 and I was Naturalized when I was 6. My father came to America in the 80's to Post-Vietnam America as an engineer looking for opportunity. He came as an educated person to an open community, even though he knew that there would be difficulties in Ohio then, I don't think that he would come here [to the US] now.

~Kushal

In light of events still unwinding tonight

In light of events still unwinding tonight, I'd like to tell a story. More likely than not, most of you are aware I'm gay. It's hard not to be, I shout about it every other day. The future doesn't look as bright as I hoped it might for LGBTQ people in this country after tonight. Since the age of thirteen to just less than a year ago, I thought about killing myself once a day. That's once a day for eight years. I knew I was gay, I hated myself for it, and I was afraid that there wasn't a place for me in this country and this world because I was gay. Because of decisions and attitudes and actions that led to today's political climate, for millions of LGBTQ people, especially young, confused and scared kids, that thought I once had is now a reality. The only thing I can tell myself that even attempts to ease the pain is this - I am going to fight SO hard these next years - for me, for you, for ALL of us. Crossing this road may be lengthy and full of hurt, but I'll see you on the other side.

~Adrianna Redhair

My grandmother was not born in this country

My grandmother was not born in this country. She was born in Italy and then immigrated to Argentina to eventually come to America in her early twenties. Now I am the same age that my grandmother would have been when she came to this country many years ago. Given the current status of the world it forces me to recognize, as I have many times before, this is a country of immigrants. None of us, technically, belong here. Her story of coming to America and only knowing two people and not being able to speak English put her at a great disadvantage. She managed to make a stable life for herself, but it was a life that was not made easier by American society. And now, hearing the stories of people's journey immigrating into America and the struggles they face, makes me wonder was it easier for my grandmother to come into this country and make a life for herself then it is now? Have the systems in place only forced people into deeper levels of poverty with fewer opportunities to escape? Upon reflection the answers seems to be a resounding yes. 

~Anonymous

I am not an immigrant

I am not an immigrant. Nor am I a member of an ethnic minority. I also have not grown up within a position of strictly limited economic means. Although I arrived to be at Fordham through an unexpected series of events, these events from my past have allowed me to be fortunate enough to obtain an upper level education. By living in this rather progressive city over the past four years, it has only further enabled me to value the importance of political awareness. I want there to be persistence. I want those around me to be filled with the desire of activism. Although I believe that the political climate has only caused heightened tensions among the preexisting problem areas of this country, I like to hope that in the face of this "time of upheaval" people will resolve these systemic inefficiencies with compassion, strength, and hope. 

~Anonymous

This Christmas I asked for several books

This Christmas I asked for several books and got most of them. One of them was Don't Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine. Funnily enough, I "read" this book in my sophomore year of college in my English class: Writing New York. Ironically, I actually didn't read the book - I should have, but I didn't. Anyway, fast forward, this year I read Rankine's book Citizen and went to a talk about it with Claudia herself. It made me want to go back and read the book I never read. So, I got the book and read it. One page stuck out to me particularly. It was harrowing to think about it in the face of this election (image of said page is attached) and really made me think about the importance knowledge and awareness is. 
Something that really stuck out to me was the line "you don't remember because you don't care." This is something that my Mother also used to say to me. She would always tell me that it was no excuse to "forget" someone's name because if you really cared to remember it you would. This has always stayed with me and I have always taken the time to remember people's names and what they tell me. To me, it is imperative to do this because doing this shows people that you are listening to them and furthermore, care about what they are saying.
When Rankine says: "in Bush's case I find myself talking to the television: you don't know because you don't care" I hear my mother's voice. The President "forgetting" whether or not it was two or three people that drug a black man to death in Texas is extremely symbolic and representative of what I feel our country currently represents. "They don't know because they don't care" In the face of the Black Lives Matter movement it is extremely difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that it solely exists on the basis that people just don't care about black lives. They' don't know because they don't care. How do we get people to care? We know that black lives don't matter in this society, but how do we change that? How do we change a culture that invalidates and ignores a whole population's basest identity? 

~Lienne Harrington