Jessica is 38 years old and a single parent. She’s a good woman with a pretty good head on her shoulders. She moved to Philadelphia 10 years ago when she was 28 years old, from Puerto Rico. She’s a mother of two, one teenage girl and a little boy. She came to America to have a better life far apart from her family.
Her biggest dream was to become a nurse. When she came to Philadelphia she had nobody here to help her and her children. She found a small job it wasn’t paying much but it was maintaining for a while a roof on her and her kid’s heads. Little by little she started to get to know the streets around her and her neighborhood. She would save every check that came in from her job to buy herself a bigger house under her name. After a while she found a school for nursing, and she signed up.
When she came home to tell her kids about the school she had found to do nursing they told her that they were extremely happy for her and what’s she’s doing to better herself and her future. She said that they’re the reason for her wanting to do something in life. Jessica then told me “I never had anyone, not even my own family here to support me or help me with anything”. I felt bad and I can relate to her situation. Jessica explained how happy she was to start school.
Jessica started school and graduated with A’s. She said she worked really hard to achieve her dream. This was a chance to prove to her family in Puerto Rico that she didn’t need anyone to help with anything. Meaning that she didn’t need them to motivate her or help her do her work. When she further explained to me on how her family always criticized her it broke my heart, because being in her shoes and not having your own family be there for you has to be really hard. Especially that she did everything herself with her two kids.
Talking to Jessica and her telling me her story was really interesting. Yes it was hard asking someone questions that at one point got really deep. It was really personal information on how her family treated her. I personally feel that she did the best thing on moving on and becoming a great role model for her children, and showing them that eventually you’ll have to do things on your own because if one don’t do it itself no one else will do it for you.