#adaywithoutimmigrants

Tomorrow is “A Day Without Immigrants”-- an opportunity to show your support for immigrants and resist Trump by refusing to show up or buy anything

“"Tuesday November 8, 2016. Let us not remember it as The Day it brought Fear into this country, But let us remember it as The Day it Made us Stronger.”“ -From my speech at the May Day Rally. ✊✊

📷: @egofetish

Be the change you need.

My parents never let up, they always got back up after every fall. I find that immigrants are a different kind of people, we only know a life through obstacles and nothing was ever handed to us. We spend most of our lives fighting an inconvenience that can sometimes be so big it’s nauseating. We keep on though, because somehow we’ve become so accustomed to living through this lens that it almost feels normal but we’re aware it’s not. We have jobs that aren’t ideal, we get paid below minimum wage at times, we are over worked, we are tired, we are sometimes helpless from feeling so weak and vulnerable. In a sense we are warriors. We are brave and courageous. We take on what most would never. We know when to appreciate what we have and how hard to work in order to get to where we want to be. We’re in on the equation that is the working class. We know we aren’t being treated fairly, we know it’s not right but there’s only so much we can do about it. We push through. We get up every morning and do what has to get done to survive. I’m proud to be an immigrant. I’m proud to be the son of immigrants. I’m proud to know hardships some will never know. This is both my curse and my advantage. My resilience will never be taken away for me.

I’m proud of my family because we came here having only a couple changes of clothes, we didn’t even have a bed to sleep on. We slept on the floor of a room we rented for half a year, on a blanket. My dad moved up from being a busboy to being a manager in less than a year and has been managing that same restaurant for almost 18 years, a restaurant he would have owned years ago if he had the documentation to do so. My parents are true entrepreneurs and in a sense I feel like a lot of immigrants are too because opportunities are scarce and you have to figure other ways to make opportunities for yourself. Now they have three rental properties and have no mortgage on a single house that they own. I don’t know if we’d know success if we never had to meet struggle first.