Two weeks ago, I voted in a U.S. presidential election for the first time, after nearly 25 years of living in the U.S. It was a deeply significant and emotional experience.
People often assume I’m exceptionally driven to have reached where I am today, both literally and figuratively. The truth is, like many immigrants, I had to be driven and high-performing just to achieve what my American peers might consider “average.” Even something as “simple” as having a Social Security Number (SSN) in the U.S. was a journey that spanned decades.
From excelling at the top of my class throughout schooling, applying to and being accepted by a U.S. university, having my paternal uncle offer to fully support me financially, taking the SATs in my second language, taking the TOEFL (an English proficiency test required for international students whose native language isn’t English), standing in line for hours under the hot sun outside the U.S. embassy hoping to secure a visa interview, to being shouted at by security personnel once inside the embassy (think TSA)—the list goes on.
I would have gladly traded all those experiences to simply be born in the U.S. and spared the 4 AM wake-ups to study organic chemistry every day when I was 16, but that wasn’t my reality. I still remember, as a college sophomore, taking a part-time tutoring job (my first teaching experience!) at the university solely to qualify for an SSN. I even recall nervously asking my supervisor for a letter I needed to present to the Social Security Administration.
A couple of years ago, I hired an international undergraduate student as a TA. Writing a letter to the Social Security Administration so she could obtain her SSN was such a profound moment for me. She’s now a Ph.D. student with aspirations of staying and contributing to society in the U.S. When I wrote that letter, I felt like I had come full circle—from being an international undergraduate student myself, to earning my Ph.D. as an international student, to staying legal for over 20 years (standing in visa lines more times than I care to remember), becoming faculty, and helping a student who wasn’t even born when I first arrived in the U.S.
It was surreal.
