One thing, she says, is that 1st generation immigrants, even if raised here, cannot go to college except on unaffordable out-of-state tuition. This applies to her, since she is undocumented. When people know in advance that their families will not be able to afford to send them to college, it's easy to see why they might not be interested in excelling in high school. What would be the point? Especially if they could be better spending their time making money in order to support their struggling family.
She works a lot, as do many other young Latino students. Long evening shifts cut into time for homework and extracurricular activities, further keeping young immigrants from college. A college counselor noted yesterday that also, lots of young people in Apopka haven't the slightest clue about what courses they would have to take in the first place to get into college. This is somewhat common knowledge in the city I'm from.
2. Today I worked in a decorative plant nursery, many of whose products wind up in Disney World. I worked with a group of 5 ladies. Only the youngest spoke any English, and she didn't speak it very well. The work was tiresome: lots of bending over, standing back up, and tediously moving plants from here to there. We carried boxes on our heads because they were too heavy to carry only with our arms. The work was not too, too bad, although I only worked half a day. Full-time employees work from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM all day, every day.
I wasn't enjoying the work until the youngest lady and I started chatting more. When we realized that we're both 20, we talked about fun things, such as guys, dating, etc. It's when you click in this way that you realize a person is just as human as you are.
She works full-time at the nursery and also has a second job at Panda Express. I found out later from my host mom (who used to work at this plant nursery) that this girl dropped out of high school and supports her household with the help of her mother only. This girl and I have the same age, but we lead very different lives, due to only the freak chance of who was born into which situation.
