Personal Narrative: Moving Away At Home

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” My parents aren’t big hockey fans, but I assume this ran through their heads as they decided our family’s fate. Ever since I can remember, my parents have told me the decision to move here was for us and our future. For all the opportunities we wouldn’t have access to if we stayed in Mexico. While there may be a wider range of options in “the land of the free”, is it worth it if none of those options are surrounded by your family? Opportunities over happiness. That’s what it came down to. I know my parents have only stayed in the United States for us, their three kids. Whenever we’re in Mexico, I know they wish it wasn’t just a vacation. There is something different about being there, a feeling I can only wish to describe. Roaming the streets, seeing familiar, friendly faces everywhere, it’s in those moments when I feel truly at home. Something I have yet to feel elsewhere. Deep inside, I know my parents made the right decision. Moving here was about safety, a better education, and a better future. I have received a great education, I have lived in a safe community, and I’ll be the first one in my family to go to college. All
Once they live in a different country it becomes more difficult to reach them, seeing them only once a year if you’re lucky. Each time I visit my family it gets harder to leave, because I’ve realized my best moments are with them, so what could possibly be worth leaving them? Everything comes with sacrifices and this is the hardest of all. Not only leaving them, but leaving them in a country with great poverty and knowing that their version of getting by is much less than ours, or that their luxuries aren’t as extravagant to us. I’ll always long to be in Mexico, even though staying here is the “dream”. I wonder, however, if that dream involves family members passing away without being able to say a last