Family is Everything

Vanessa Valdovinos

Professor Gonzalez

English 1301- 034

13 February 2019

Family is Everything

I was seven years old not knowing what was going on. Only finding my mother, father and my grandparents pack, while I just stood there like an innocent kid watching them rush. I remember my mother telling me to pick the toys I absolutely wanted to take. I asked her where we were going, but she just replied, “I’ll tell you during the car ride”. My brother was only a year old, so I had to watch him while everyone was packing. Once we got to the car, I started to irk my mom about where we were going. She explained to me that my grandpa was getting deported. I didn’t know what that meant back then so, my mother had to explain to me more. We discussed we were going to move to Mexico where my family is from.

My mother explained to me we lived in Mexico for two years when I was born and now, we were going back. I was sad leaving my friends without any goodbyes. My dad dropped us off at the airport. He couldn’t go because of his job, but he told me he would come see us soon to stay. We were at the airport and I looked around and I didn’t seem to find my grandpa around. I asked my grandma why my grandpa wasn’t here at the airport with us if we were moving back to Mexico for him. She explained some other people took him and he was going to get there differently. I just shrugged and kept quiet.

Once we got to the airport in Mexico, I saw my aunt and cousin there waiting to take us to our house. My grandma and grandpa had a house in Mexico, which we would visit during the summer. We got to the house and I still didn’t see my grandpa. I started to weep not finding my grandpa anywhere around. We had a special bond and not seeing him there I thought we had left him in California.

I shouted at my mom, “I didn’t even get to say bye to abuelo”.

She replied, “What are you talking about a goodbye?”

My grandma told me to stop crying and said he was here, but just not with us at the moment. My mother told my aunt if she could watch my brother while her and my grandma went to go see my grandpa. I whined and demanded to go too. She made me be aware that my grandpa wasn’t at a nice place and I couldn’t cry because it would make him feel worse.

During the ride I saw how colorful and earthlier Mexico was than California, but then as we drove more, I see it change. I see the background become more dead looking. We get out of the taxi and see a big building surrounded by a fence. As we entered the building it looked as if it was a prison, but at the same time it looked a little homey. Once we gave our finger prints, we entered a door and I saw my grandpa. I ran to him and I tried my best not to cry as my mom had said. I knew he wasn’t in jail since he was still in his normal clothes. I asked my grandpa why wasn’t he with us this whole time. He told me the truth which was he was illegally living in America and they caught him which made them bring him back to Mexico.

There was an announcement made to all the visitors that we all had to leave. We said our goodbyes. My grandpa told me in 30 days he would get out of there and come home to us. He told me home was here now, but it was just temporary. I counted down the days when my grandpa would come home to us. For the mean time I had to enroll in a new school. The good thing was I already knew Spanish, so I didn’t have to enroll in English classes. I was depressed leaving my friends back in California, but I met this girl in my math class named Natalia. She seemed nice so I introduced myself. We started to talk, and she told me she had moved here from California. I was so stoked finding a new friend. Natalia had told me she moved to Mexico because her dad was deported as well. It felt relieved I had found Natalia, even better since she knew what I was going through.

The final day had come when I got the see my grandpa. We went to that building again surrounded by the fence. I entered the door once again and this time I saw more kids and family. I even saw my friend Natalia. My grandpa signed some papers and a picture was taken of him. After that, we all finally got to go home together. Once we got to my grandparents house my dad was there as well. I assumed they were talking about a serious situation since they had told me to go to my room. My cousins and I watched a movie I had brought from home called 102 Dalmatians. It had reminded me of my best friend back home named Stephanie because we would watch it all the time together. I started to cry, and my mom comforted me and said we could go visit in the summer. I wiped my tears away and hugged my grandpa. I was just thrilled my grandpa was home.

My family and I woke up the next to day go eat some breakfast. It felt the same, but different at the same time. The bond between everyone was the same, it was just knowing it wasn’t my actual home. I knew this was going to be my new home for a while, since my dad started a new job. We all made some changes and sacrifices, but we did it because we are family. We all went through a lot those past two months. The food had finally came and I sat there at the table eating my pancakes, enjoying the sight of my family all together once again.

Refection on Workshop

What worked on the workshop was everyone was not giving a negative feedback everyone was helping everyone with giving just advice. What they did not address was saying if my intro and my conclusion was good or not. My group did however say my story was good and well described. They didn’t say anything about my paper having dialogue as well, but I knew I needed at least one.

The changes I made was I added dialogue which my group didn’t say I needed but I knew I needed a little more. I went back and noticed I had some words that didn’t belong on some sentences. They weren’t run on sentences since I had commas in the right places, but the words were just extra in the sentence. I feel like I still need to add more dialogue, but I didn’t want to put too much dialogue to take up the story. I also didn’t want to add more dialogue If no one was really talking to me in the story since I was a kid. The adults would just talk to each other and I would just be there following where ever they go.