We Are America

What I Had To Let Go

By Gaby

Lynn Classical High School, Lynn, Massachusetts

A moment when I decided to travel to another place and support
myself, was a moment where I dreamed of having my own things,
dreaming of having a car and not abandoning that dream. It was a
journey, a long journey.

I had spoken with my sister who is here in America to travel here too and
have that opportunity to fulfill my goals. I planned the trip, and I was ready
to leave. Then I left the house around 1:00 in the morning, traveling by bus
and arriving at a place called Xela. That was when everything changed,
when I thought that I would not see my entire family and share moments
with them as I did every week. So I continued and along the way I met people who were going to the same place as me. I was fortunate to meet a lady who was very good to me, and we became very good friends with her. We stayed in the same hotel, we went out shopping to see things in stores to eat. The next day we all left the hotel, traveled in a truck and made stops to buy food, drinks and things like that.

Then, we arrived at a house where we met more people who were going to
the same place following the American Dream. I met a mother with her children, a girl and a boy. They became quite fond of me; they wanted to hang out with me all the time, to the point where the children treated me like one
of their sisters and even called me “sister.” They hugged me, gave me kisses on the cheeks, and I grew to love them a lot. I will never forget them. I continued on my journey together with my friend towards the American dream to fulfill our goals and dreams. It was already day four when we entered a mountain and at that moment the tire of our car exploded, bang! We stayed
one night in the mountains, then help arrived to replace the tire, and we
continued walking and arrived at the river, called “Río Bravo.” We crossed
about 20 in each boat. The two children almost fell off the boat. The children
were crying until we reached the shore and picked up everything we were
carrying. We passed some wires and they told us to be very careful with it,
because it had electricity. We crossed it carefully and continued walking.
We were walking for about 2 hours in the middle of the night. We were in a
place where there was absolutely nothing. Then we saw some lights in the
distance, until we found immigration, then they grabbed us and took us on
a very cold bus. They separated us all. They took me to one side and they
took the rest on another bus and they forced me to a place where the walls
were only made of covers, and in the same place they gave us aluminum
to shelter us and a very strange food. They took my friend to another place
separate from where I was, I only saw that they took her away and from then
on I didn't know what happened to my friend. I didn't know anything else
about her and I still haven't found her, but I have the hope of seeing her and
the other girls again. By being here in America I can have opportunities to
study and thus find a good job and be worth what I had to let go.