"My summer led me to one fundamental truth: the America Dream isn't for everyone, but it should be..."
In 2019, I packed my bags and headed to Los Angeles for a summer. While I went in thinking I'd be doing a service to the Venezuelan community by sharing its stories, I realized it was them who were helping me. My idea for this project started after I heard the words of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, "If-"
" If you can watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it. "
Take a look at some of my takeaways from my experience.
