As an immigrant’s daughter, I think about all the diverse jobs my father took to make it in
America. As an immigrant’s daughter, I think about all the family my mother had left behind in
Bangladesh to start a new life here. The countless lines on their faces from worries, I wasn’t even
aware of growing up as a child. Their sacrifices like many immigrant families, structured the15
new generation, my generation. But what does this new generation look like, or what can we
expect this upcoming generation to look like coming into a newly found adulthood?
Paving the way with unscripted guidelines, we face very different struggles than those of
our parents, yet we still shoulder their burden and the remembrance of their sacrifices. As a
society, we can see that the world is everchanging underneath our feet. Those same struggles
shared with our parents of worrying about “making it” are still present but now entangled with
new worries of the cut-throat job market, international politics and affairs, and handling personal
expectations that do come with this new emerging world.
There comes an importance in acknowledging the differences between the old and new,
those that our own parents wouldn’t ideally understand. The hope with this column is to capture
the adversity and journey that is prevalent in the newer generation, but still hold light to the
impacts of both historical and cultural significance of those important figures who have made it
possible to make a new place, home for countless possibilities.
