University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Alexandra

Alexandra was one-year-old when her parents left her with her grandmother to immigrate to the United States. Because she missed her parents, she began to feel depressed. She began acting out and disobeying her grandmother as she grew older, and at the age of 17 became pregnant. “I’m doing my best to be mother and father at once, because I don’t want him to struggle with the same things I faced,” she says.

Video Transcript

How difficult life can be when you don’t have a father or a mother by your side. My parents emigrated to the United States when I was only one year old. At that time I didn’t really miss them-I was too young and I didn’t understand what was happening. But through the years as I grew up I realized that I needed them because pictures and phone calls weren’t enough.

Most of the time I was depressed. I thought that doing the wrong things and disobeying the only person who really supported me and dedicated most her time to take care of me to make sure I had everything I needed. I thought by doing this, I could forget the pain and anger I was feeling in my heart. But that wasn’t what happened, since nothing good came of it. I decided to change.

Because of all the things I was doing, I got pregnant at 17 and I knew that for the good and future of my child, I needed to change. I thank God for letting me open my eyes in time. Now my son is a year old and I’m doing my best to be mother and father at once, because I don’t want him to struggle with the same things I faced.

My life isn’t the best or the easiest but I’m trying to live it and enjoy it as best I can. Amo mi vida, amo mi hermoso hijo, y amo esa persona que más que ser mi abuela fue ana madre, en todo el sentido de la palabra para mi hermana y para mi. Dios me dio la dicha de tenerla a mi lado, y no me daba cuenta que ahí a mi lado estaba, o estar enfocados en cosa que no debía. I love my life, I love my beautiful son, and I love the person who was more than my grandma, she was a mother in every sense, to me and my sister. God me the bliss to have her by my side, and I didn’t realize she was there for me, because I was focused on things I shouldn’t have been.