Growing Up Fast

By Brigida Cruz

BoOm! AHH! ZZZ! This is the chaotic noise my mom would always hear when she would babysit in Mexico. The kids would never stop babbling.

While she was babysitting, she made a new friend who was related to the kids she cared for. When she wasn’t babysitting, she was selling bread and her friend would help her.

After a while, my mom’s friend decided to go to America so he could find a wife. He then invited my mom to come visit him. At the time, my dad had a kid in Mexico and he was working at a restaurant. He thought he wasn’t getting paid enough, so he decided to come to America too.

My parents both came to America for different reasons: my mom’s friend wanted a travel buddy and my dad wanted more opportunities. They both ended up in Gifford.

My dad had two kids and a stable job when he met my mom at her brother’s house. Time passed, they got together, and soon they welcomed my brother and me into the world.

My parents have worked all their lives to give us more options. Now, I’m determined to do better too. I plan on graduating and hopefully getting my dream job as an architect. I want to build my house near my parent’s house.

Obstacles motivate me because I like a challenge. Challenges help me learn new things. They help me succeed and learn from my mistakes.

With immigrant parents, you often have to grow up fast. This helped me mature at a young age. I had to speak two languages, for example. I had to understand and memorize words to help them at the doctor, the bank, and the store.

When translating, I would sometimes say words that didn’t make sense, and this would make my parents laugh. I used to mess up my 60 and 70 because in Spanish those numbers sound similar, but now I would never make that mistake.

In America, if you are bilingual you can get a job instantly and even get paid more. So, I thank my parents for coming here. They helped me grow up fast.