It's been another long while since I last posted. Not so sure if this blogging hobby is for me, but I'll try to keep at it. So, as some of you may know, I successfully defended my comps (thesis)!!! I defended on March 3rd at 9am. My committee consisted of my notable professor Robert J. Nash, my assistantship supervisor Dr. Sherwood Smith, my practicum and summer internship supervisor Dr. Stacey Aileen Miller, my great friend Dr. DeMethra LaSha Bradley, and my ubbertly wonderful Graduate Colleague (GC) Jesenia Gervacio. All great individuals who have positively impacted my experience at the University of Vermont. Stories were shared, tears were shed, and warmth was felt through out the room. I openly spoke about growing up as a migrant farmworking student, giving a different meaning to the phrase 'coming out'. For many individuals I am the first person they have met who grew up as a migrant who actually worked in the fields. I kept this identity hidden because of ingrained messages that kept me believing it was an inferior way of living. Only God knows how much internal oppression and stereotype threat I developed believing these messages. Slowly I have learned to breathe light to my experiences and accept who and where I come from.
Vermont has aided me in appreciating where I come from and provided me with the confidence to identity with who I am. Grant it I was provided with other opportunities and experiences to 'find myself', but UVM HESA, in particular, provided me with the space to develop and make meaning out of those experiences. During a conversation, my friend and I were talking about spaces and what they meant and how we are all creators of our spaces to ourselves and to others. I have chosen my career path to be education because I want to provide a space for students to discover themselves and to understand themselves and develop themselves into leaders. Words cannot express how excited, anxious, and desperate I am to know where I will end up next year. Which students I will have the opportunity to work with. What spaces will I be able to create, new and old.
I ask you, when have you provided a space to be yourself? In what spaces are you at your best? What type of people have created a space for you?
I thank my parents for providing me the space to be my migrant self. I thank my sisters for creating a space with me where we are able to joke, laugh, cry, get mad for no apparent reason, and to be our Tejana selfs. I thank my mentors, teachers, educators, and friends for giving me a space where I could slowly rediscover myself.
*If you would like to know more about my comps presentation, I posted two videos I used for my presentation. I hope to continue to share stories of migrant students post-graduate school. Thanks to all who helped make my comps defense be what it was!!!
