Today, I just wanted to pen down my feelings on a topic that’s not very pleasant, often stressful/ painful, yet it’s the story of nearly every immigrant’s life.
Every party, every coffee date, every conversation between two immigrants usually ends with, “My visa is up for renewal next year", "Not sure if I’m gonna stay here much longer”, or “I’m not sure if I wanna buy a house here, considering my visa didn’t get picked in the lottery last two times, and I am only left with 1 more try”, or “Sorry, I can’t be a part of this travel plan. I am not allowed to leave the country right now”.
I’ve had people come up to me in class informing me that they will not be able to continue their session anymore because their visa didn’t get renewed and are now required to leave the country.
Can you imagine the stress that all of us first generation immigrants must live with every day?
All that planning that goes into visiting your family in India. It needs to be timed with visa appointments, the stress of not knowing if you’ll be allowed back in the country, the bag full of documents you need to carry with you, the 2 minutes of palpitations when you see the immigration officer every time you enter US. During your interview, make sure you’re smiling and pleasant, but not too much to push him into asking more questions or raising any suspicion. Can you imagine the unbearable pain of not being able to see your loved ones for two years due to the travel ban during pandemic? This is just the tip of the iceberg.
I am not here to talk about the challenges that we face everyday (coz that would need an entire page on the web), but to talk about how despite facing the challenges, we are still thriving!
We are faced with the same challenges that everybody else is – life, family, job, school, kids, friends, pandemic…. And to top it, we are constantly dealing with the stress of immigration. Yet, we have managed to build a life for ourselves by ourselves. With no help from anyone, we are thriving in every field. We didn’t grow up here, so we don’t have any referrals/ connections. We might still be learning/ adapting to the culture or google every time a reference is made which we don’t understand. But we are still succeeding! Language barrier, cultural barrier, raising children in both cultures, prejudices… we’re learning and crushing each challenge like a champ!
For me, personally, once I decided to quit my corporate career and dance full-time, setting up a dance studio came much later. It was the initial battle of immigration that took nearly 2 years before I could even begin to start my business. This battle never ends. We just learn to live with it.
I guess, my point with this post was just to give a huge shout out to all my immigrant friends in US who are roaring with success in every field despite the challenges they are faced with all day everyday. I don’t think they give themselves enough credit or even understand entirely what they’re doing. They are so brave to be living with this constant fear and stress, yet building a life for themselves. It’s okay if you hit a bump every now and then, just know that you’re doing an amazing job, and that you are courageous! You are so hardworking and never give up. You aren’t just surviving, but you are thriving!
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