The year I finallly grew up

I hadn’t uploaded this picture before. Not just because I’m not too proud of the mustache-goatee combo, but because you have no idea just how sad I was when I took it, and it kinda hurts to look at. I had just gotten the worst news in the world –at least until a week and a half later when I really got the worst news in the world. I got fired from my job the day before Thanksgiving of 2024, and I had never been so much in the pit of despair as that day.

So why share it? We have the terrible habit of only sharing the perfect moments of our lives –that lovely breakfast, the moment she said “Yes”, a perfect sunset, birds– but it’s because we don’t want to feel vulnerable, or too seen, or, God forbid, human. But every now and then, it’s good to share a tear, or a frown, maybe even a little blood. Not for the attention, no. But in my case at least, it’s part of confronting everything I’ve been through since. And for which I am incredibly grateful.

Yes, even the horrible last months of November and the beginning of 2025.

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Yes, Your Honor

I have always been proud to call myself an American citizen. First it was the childish glee of walking straight through customs on the many, many times we came here on vacation, like all middle class Venezuelans. Then it was the understanding of American culture, the slight aura of worldiness that a blue passport gave. And finally, the ease with which I could move here in the middle of a migratory crisis, the largest one in South American history and only comparable to the Syrian refugee exodus because of the civil war there. I always had a bit of survivor’s guilt, though, especially knowing how so many Venezuelans have suffered to get out. I vowed I would never take my luck for granted and would try and do everything correctly to be a good citizen.

So I am here, an hour away from home, in the small town of Bartow, Florida… on jury duty.

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A position on voting, by someone who comes from a non-democracy

ELECTION-2018

One of the first things I did when I moved to the States was register to vote. You may think it’s a small thing, but it was one of those things I wanted to do to truly feel American. I would make my voting debut just a little less than a year later, on the Florida primaries (I registered as a Democrat) for the midterm elections on November 6. And then, last week, out of sheer coincidence, I voted early.

I don’t need to tell you this is a major election. The 2016 Presidentials started changing the political scene in this country at a breathtaking speed, and a way all too familiar for someone who comes from a place where democracy is dying a slow death (I never believe it dies, but more on that later). I see, concerned, things happening in my new country and all around the world that I have seen before. And I see young people react with indifference, making up hundreds of excuses. Or express disappointment, believing that there’s no point.

I’m here to tell you that’s exactly what most people in power want you to think, guys. Although it is certainly telling that, considering how everything is going on in the world, people continue going to the less democratic of leaders (oh hello, Brazil). But please, if you really think that you still will get nowhere voting, the only way to overcome that is, precisely, voting.

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