Well, let me keep recapping the events that went on while I was ignoring my blogging duties over the past few months. It was not all tennis, you know. I DO have other facets to my life that don't revolve around a fuzzy, yellow tennis ball. So, being that the subject, apart from coaching tennis for the fourth straight summer in a row, I worked on my first internship. It was a busy, hectic summer to say the least, having to teach tennis in the mornings and go into the FLIC (Florida Immigrant Coalition) office in the afternoons. But, I would do it all over again! Would have been easier to be able to drive from place to place, but that's besides the point. Hehe. And, the most amazing part of this story is HOW I was able to get the position as a FLIC intern.
It must have been mid-January if I have to think back on it, and I received an email from Felipe Matos. It stated, "URGENT: MUST OPEN!" or something along those lines. So, I open it, and it was a forwarded email from UnitedWeDream.org, the nationwide organization of undocumented youth. I read through it, and it stated that this summer for the first time, there was going to be a "DREAM Summer," which was explained to be an internship opportunity for undocumented youth of the entire nation. Five or six different cities were going to offer several internship opportunities and Miami was one of them. But, what really caught my eye and intrigued me to fill out the application was the $5,000 scholarship that was going to be granted for everyone who was chosen to be part of DREAM Summer!
"That is exactly the amount I need to be able to graduate in December!" I thought to myself. Thing is, since my tennis season was ending last Spring semester, I wasn't going to be eligible for the same athletic scholarship that I had been receiving the past years at St. Thomas to be able to finish my last undergraduate semester. So, I was kinda freaking out. I did not know where I was going to come up with $5K to pay my last semester at school. But, this email was the puzzle-piece that I needed to solve my financial predicament! I applied right away, and wished for the best!
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, this internship/scholarship opportunity also came along with two roundtrip 3-4 day flights to Los Angeles, California! I had never been to L.A. and I was stoked! The opening retreat would be in mid-June before the start of the internship and the ending retreat would be the first week of September. So, as the months passed, and June crept around the corner, I had not received any word from the DREAM Summer organizers. I began to think the worse, and already began to devise ways to raise the money I needed for my last semester at school. Until, I received a phone call from FLIC about three weeks before the beginning retreat. I was interviewed by Jackie on a Monday, I think, and later that week I was contacted by Delia Arriagada, one of the organizers of DREAM Summer. They had found a spot for me at FLIC and Delia wanted my passport info so she could book the earliest flight out to L.A. because I WAS IN! What a relief! All the waiting and anguish paid off as it felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
What occurred thereon after is an experience that I will never forget. In L.A. I was astonished and pleasantly humbled to find myself in a group of 101 amazing, wonderful DREAMers from all over the country! Each and every one of them brought a different, compelling story to our struggle of undocumented persons living in the United States. Maria Luna made my jaw drop and eyes swell with tears as she opened her heart to us to tell her story. Carlos Saavedra brought this amazing energy and positive attitude that lifted everyone's spirits at the UCLA Labor Center to be able to tackle the obstacles that lie in our movement's future. But, hats off and everything off for that matter, to the ridiculously awesome work of the Dream Team Los Angeles DREAMers who were in charge of putting this whole summer together along with the unfaltering and ever-inspiring leadership of Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center. What an amazing man he is, has been, and will be for the thousands upon thousands of individuals who have ever been discriminated against in this country or have gone through human rights oppression of any sort. A tiredless, workhorse Chinese-American citizen who has given his life to the advancement and progress of the immigrant community here in the United States, no matter the color of your skin or where you come from. He is there for you, and once you shake his hand, you know he will always be there for you.
It was an amazing four initiating days spent in L.A. in June as we all parted ways to embark on our internship-filled summers! We had created a family, and not one of us failed to mention how excited we were to get back together in September. So, then came my summer. Waking up at 8 AM five-days a week, spending three hours out in the blazing, heat of the Miami sun, hitting tennis balls with 15 year old tennis prospects. Then, a one hour break to shower and grab a Subway sandwich as my dad drove me to the FLIC office to be there at 1 PM. Usually spent four hours there, doing whatever they needed me to do, archiving articles, creating a template for a member's directory, phone-banking, etc. As I finished up around 5 or 6 PM, where I usually got dropped off at the metro station to be on my way home. That was my summer, and I loved every part of it! Thanks to FLIC, I was able to have the flexibility to teach tennis in the mornings, save up some cash on the side, and still have the time to do my internship work. It was awesome! Working alongside my communications mentor, Natalia Jaramillo, was a great experience! From bothering and annoying her in the office to going to New York City for the first time with her, I could not have asked for a better internship supervisor! I miss her dearly!
Lastly, the internship experience had to come to an end, as we all headed back to Los Angeles for our ending retreat. One thing I forgot to mention as well was the great people that made up our "Miami crew." Diego, Julio, Manuela, Mariella, Saleema (who couldn't go to the ending retreat), and myself, we all meshed and became even closer on the way back to L.A.! We were the sickest group! Also, joined later on in L.A., by the rest of the East Coast DREAMers, Carlos, Antonella, Hareth, Tatiana, and Emily! The fondest memory of the final retreat has to be the DREAMer march that we participated in on Labor Day. All one hundred of us marched with the labor unions down streets of L.A. with our "I'm Undocumented" shirts screaming and yelling, "Undocumented and Unafraid!" It was an amazing experience, of which at first I was a bit hesitant about, especially when wearing the shirt. But, there were so many of us that I just felt that much more united to this national movement of immigrant youth coming out of the shadows and showing our faces to the nation. Extremely empowering moment. As we headed back to the Labor Center, we all knew that this experience had come to a close, but each and everyone of us valued what we had just experienced. An experience that will last a lifetime, and relationships that will not be broken!
