Just Like Us- Blog Post 4

At this part of the book, it is a couple of days before the girls junior year at University of Denver. The girls decided to throw a big party before their classes started and the writer of the book, Helen Thorpe, was at the party, as she as at all of the events that the girls are at since she is writing a book about them. In this part of the book she was talking about how she had believed that she shared a connection with the girls because they were all looking for their identities at the same time. She was trying to make a name for herself but after her husband decided to run for mayor, she was known as the mayors wife every where she went, including this party. In the book she says, "I still saw myself as a journalist, and could never accept that I would be defined by the actions of my spouse, just as the girls could never accept that they would be defined by the actions of their parents" (301). This quote really stuck out to me because it shows that even though the girls had to deal with not having green cards, they still managed to follow their dreams. They did whatever they could to attend college so that they can get an education and become successful enough to support their families and hopefully one day become American citizens. This quote was inspiring to me because shows that everyone has to branch away from their parents and their normal life. It reminds me that as my classmates and I prepare for graduation and for whatever our plans are in the fall, we have to take advantage of what we have now because once we start our future there is no going back to the childhood days of always relying on your parents and the surrounding community for help.