Sunday, July 13, 2008

Life after college in question

The L.A. Times ran a story on undocumented students enduring hardships in school. Honestly, all I see is the same information being regurgitated over and over again. Yes undocumented students struggle to attend college and/or universities, but then again so do legal residents and citizens. I read some of the comments left by readers on the story and I am pissed off. F all those jerks who say that undocumented students should be kicked out of the U.S. and sent back to their home land. Some of those comments are dumb and ignorant and I usually ignore them, but it gives me an idea as to what the general populace thinks about this issue. It all comes down to undocumented students taking away American jobs and taking valuable space from legal residents and citizens in schools. It's really a pointless argument because attending college is a choice that a person commits to. You want to be there, no one is forcing you to be there and spend your money on tuition and books. It's just frustrating sometimes that despite all the strides undocumented students make in our schooling, we still get tossed to the curve. Anyway, the article is basically about students questioning their future after they finish their schooling. What good is it having a degree if you can't even apply for a job. I personally have to deal with this issue because I'm in the same boat as they are. How can I establish a career if I can't even legally work in the U.S. ? At the same time what else am I going to do ? Settle for a simple life of mediocrity getting married, having kids and working a regular job ? There is nothing wrong with wanting that kind of life, but that just isn't for me. Marriage, kids and settling down are things that I want in my life, just not now. Every semester I question my endeavors and debate if continuing school is something that I should continue to pursue. Thinking negatively like that only helps to drive me even further into continuing my education and becoming the first college graduate in my family. I am the oldest in my family and I want to set an example to my three younger sisters. To show them that they can dedicate their lives to into doing something they love rather than settling for what ever is handed to them. The story also touches on the subject of students still being in school even after graduating because again, not papers, no job. I myself am already dealing with this topic because I can't afford to attend a university full time and be able to make a living for myself. It's too much money and I would literally have to work full time and go into debt just to finish school. I'm half way done at ELAC and I fear and dread having to pay thousands of dollars for my tuition rather than a few hundred dollars. I'm still debating what course of action I should take, but if worse comes to worse, I'll be at ELAC getting associates degrees in photography, desktop publishing, business and what ever else interest me. Even though I can't afford to take my education to the next level, I can still keep on learning and broadening my horizons.