THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, MAy 16, 2025 Page 13 HONORABLE MENTION | FROM PAGE 11 My family doesn’t celebrate their Independence Day but we sure do celebrate July 4th by buying fireworks, cooking a barbeque, and hot dogs for the children all day. All the older cousins get together and secretly go to the corner store without the younger cousins knowing. The dads play cards, except for the one flipping the steak and hot dogs. The moms talk about the latest chisme. We would get together like all the other American families. My mom and dad built their way up to where we are now. They had dreams and accomplished them. My 17-year-old parents provided for themselves all while learning a new language. They didn’t have their parents to rely on, only themselves. So, they worked jobs that Americans wouldn’t. Cleaning the scraps of food from the sink as they wash the dishes, cleaning the clinics you go to, working the night shifts everyone didn’t, including them, but what could they do? They took every opportunity that landed in their hands. I remember the new burns and cuts my dad would show little 8-year-old me when he’d get home on school nights. I didn’t realize that these cuts and burns were the reason I was fed each day. The reason that I slept soundly at night. The reason I got light-up Skechers. The reason is that I didn’t live with any fear. Immigrants are the hard workers of our nation who share the same dream of better lives for their families. Immigrant parents raise diligent children who become successful nurses, entrepreneurs, police officers, teachers – all while patiently waiting years for their legal papers, staying silent when they know they are taken advantage of. They endure the cuts, burns, and blisters for their first-gen children to get into colleges, and their children work just as hard to make them proud. Society today is versatile and diverse due to the great impact of immigrants who’ve made our nation beautiful and strong. Try to picture America without immigrants – that nation would cease to be America. It would not be a better place. My name is Katerin and I am glad to have been raised by two dedicated parents who have allowed me to flourish. Who have allowed me to become a person of gratitude, respect, integrity, and most of all a person of hard work. Every day is a day where they give their all. They have taught me to give my all in my academics and sports. At every falling moment of mine, they say, “trabaja duro,” even as the tiredness shows in their eyes and they look so drained when they come home at night. For them, I work hard. Because of them, I will be successful. Immigrants are the face of this nation through their diversity, hard work, and their undying will to keep going. Thank you, immigrants. You make this country great.
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