Caritas Veritas Symposium: Personal Experience

I attended the annual Caritas Veritas Symposium on September 27, 2016. The majority of the lectures that I attended were about the good life, but the one that really impacted me was “The good Life? Reflections on being Undocumented.” This lecture was given in the atrium at 10 a.m. The main point that I got from this lecture was what it really means to be an undocumented person in a foreign country. The three people who participated in the lectures were all Dominican students; two of them had already graduated, while one of them is in her last year here at Dominican. These students were undocumented students who shared there stories of how they interpreted what a good life are to them. One of the spoke people that really impacted me in a way …show more content…
I can truly relate to her because I was in the same situation that she was on. I came to the United States when I was 14 years old; growing up in a complete different environment was to me one of the toughest things I have ever been through. Coming to a complete different country and having to learn a complete different language was a task that I knew will take some time. Many people from foreign countries come to the U.S with the mentality of achieving the American dream. However, in my perspective and in the perspective of the three women who talked about what truly means to be an undocumented person in the U.S the good life is all about surviving day to day and the American dream does not exist. As immigrants, people look at us and treat us like outsiders, people who only come to the U.S to steal other people’s jobs. But in reality we come to the U.S to run away from the violence and the poverty that our homeland has. We come here with the illusion of having a good life, but in reality we must work extra hard for what we really one in life and try to survive on the daily basis. Many people will try to crush your dream when you are an