I am the proud granddaughter of an immigrant

I think back to many years ago compared to knowledge and how things have changed from one generation to the next. What if the decision to leave a country was the best decision ever made?

If my grandfather weren’t so brave and eager for a better future in America, there would be one less advertising graduate, one less clothing store, and one less student in my family. If there weren’t so many eager young people thriving for a better future by giving their energy, youth, strength, and love for this country, America would have known that it would cease to exist as it does now.

The America I see now is a thank you to my grandfather and to the many people who toiled long ago in the fields of our past. I am grateful for my parents and my family for pushing me to pursue my dreams and to be a role model in the search for a better tomorrow. They chased after the best tomorrow knowing that they would only receive the smallest benefits from their hard work.

Today I am proof of that dream.

At a very young age my grandfather left a life of poverty under a dictatorship in Cuba for the promise of a new life in the United States. My grandfather later came to the United States and worked to get an education at the University of Miami.

Unlike my grandfather, I was born into a life with a life to dream and pursue what my heart desired. A country with infinite possibilities, where the sky was the limit and where there was hope for the future and for future generations.

I am grateful to have had a very humble upbringing, with only one sister. One of the most important things that I was taught from a young age was the importance of having an education. My childhood was filled with the joy of laughter, love and faith in God.

My parents created a paradise in a modest four-bedroom house in beautiful Miami, Florida.

Although I was born in the United States, my family has raised me in the Cuban way. Although it can be difficult trying to meet friends who understand the same rules as the way decent Cuban parents are and the way they raised you, there are still plenty of people who can relate to you.

I will always be grateful that I was born and raised in the United States as an American because of a decision my grandfather made.

I can dream. I am an American and the proud granddaughter of an immigrant.