Karina: "Looking Back"

I am starting to feel like I live here. As I continue to spend time in other places other than where I grew up, I realize how much the concept of home becomes more and more relative.  I love my city of San Diego but there is too much beauty in the world to only have one home. Home is wherever I feel the love and right now, the paradise known as Miami is twirling me in its rays.

We have visited many neighborhoods here in Miami. I think my favorite activity of this week was visiting Hialeah High School. I have a couple Duke friends from this area and I wanted to see what the area was like. My interest in understanding individuals and their personal diaspora within the world helps me in comprehending them, their behavior and actions (can you tell I love sociology and anthropology?). It is almost like a dissection of another’s identity and then material for which to compare my experience with. So, I was looking forward to this visit. Despite having to wake up early, driving up to Hialeah High felt oddly familiar, almost as I was coming home after a long semester from school. Perhaps it was the rawness of Hialeah that felt so unequivocally normal to me. By “rawness,” I mean the lack of façade and the presence of honesty and reality. Unlike the wonders of the beach or other certain parts of Miami, Hialeah didn’t have a façade. It represents the reality of the most recent wave of Cuban immigrants—the ones who have to combat the media’s interpretations that all Cubans are wealthy white Republican individuals and at the same time overcome language barriers, cultural differences, poverty etc. It was an experience that I am familiar with that felt normal to me on that humid rainy morning.

Hialeah High School houses many first generation college students. We met with Ms. Grandal, the college advisor and with some students who were part of the school’s National Honor Society and Key Club. They gave us a tour of their high school, we entered classrooms, heard from teachers and learned about how the school works. As a proud first generation college student, I felt like I was touring my own life experience. Granted, Hialeah High seemed to serve more students than my small charter school (I am definitely privileged in that respect). Visiting the school sent me straight back to high school. It seems like the kids at Hialeah High were incredibly motivated to get to college and beyond and that was quite inspiring. 4 years ago I was preparing to apply to college. Now, I am preparing to finish my last year at Duke University. Never did I think I would see the day! I, of course, knew that graduation would happen but thinking about it is so surreal.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the Duke world, and try to be like the rest of the students—which makes sense, we all want to feel like we belong. I forget. I forget that I come from a place similar to Hialeah High and the high schools where the kids at the institute are from. I come from an area where most people don’t go to college or if they do, it’s a community or state college. I reflect back on senior year and how much work it was and how blessed I felt to get into my first choices. And I think about the people and programs that helped me make it possible. While most kids get to college with the help of their parents and their own hard work, I had a team behind me. Why? Because, statistics told me that I wouldn’t make it. But then, other statistics told me I could. And so, I did. We did.

Kisses, besos, beijos,

K