When I  was little I  would hear everyone in my family say: “ Por algo pasan las cosas,” which means everything happens for a reason. I  always knew what it meant and why they said it but had never experienced anything that would warrant my saying it.  

One time we were going to the store and the key got stuck, so we were there for a while before we were able to leave. On our way an accident had just happened; It looked pretty bad, one of the cars got pushed to the edge and looked like an accordion crushed from both sides, the other was just hurt from the front. 

“Por algo pasan las cosas,” said my mom.

I  think that if the key hadn't got stuck, it could have been us experiencing that accident. Thinking about that gave me chills. After my scary experience, I was able to really understand the saying and many other experiences for which it would apply.

Early in 2018, my tios were talking about how they wanted to go to Mexico because they missed the food their house and all the nature, they also wanted to see my abuelitos. Three of my tios have no papers which meant they could go but not come back. They would always joke around saying that they were going to do it and would I miss them. My tios are like my father figures, taking the place of one I  never had, so I would tell them to not go, believing they wouldn't do it.

 As the sun was just coming out,  my mom dropped me and my brother off at school and then went to work. My tios always leave the house one hour after us since they all work in a restaurant. They have long hard nights ahead, so they get going at around 10 am.

On Tuesday, December 18th, 2018, my brother and I had just come back from a very long stressful day at school; it was the last day of school before winter break. I  was watching Netflix and he was playing with his Nintendo, my mom had to clean two houses that day so we knew she was going to get home late. It was around 7:30 pm when my mom got home, when I opened the door I  noticed her eyes were watery. When she set her stuff down and sat at the kitchen table, I asked her what was wrong she started tearing up and she said, “Today in the morning your tios got deported as they were going to work” I  couldn't believe it. 

I  remember being shocked; it hadn't hit me yet. I  started to cry. I was sad that my uncles weren't going to be around especially since Christmas was really close and we always celebrate with them. 

My mom told me and my brother to calm down, that everything was going to be alright, and that’s when she said bueno pues, por algo pasan las cosas, your tios had been wanting to go to Mexico; God put this in their way so that they could finally go see your abuelitos. She said we would help them come back and for us to pretend that they were on a vacation. 

When the news about my tios had settled in my mom had told us that we were going to have to cut down on some expenses because she was going to have to pay rent by herself, that meant not eating out as much and using the money for things that we needed not wanted.  I felt helpless but tried to not ask for much.

During this time, I  was still deciding if I  wanted to have a quinceanera, I  then decided to not want to have it because of the expenses and we couldn't afford that, noting that I was also paying for my DC trip which my mom decided to keep paying since we were almost done. 

Sometime around the end of May, my mom got in a car accident. We were stressed because not only did she have to pay rent and money to help my tios come back, now we had no car and some more expenses. My mom then told me, “Dios aprieta pero no ahorca”, that we were going to get through it because everything has a solution except for death. 

On July 2019, after about six months my tios were finally back. I had missed them so much I  was really happy. I hugged them all so hard, asked them how it was over there and if they were happy about seeing my abuelitos. Everything had gone back to normal we were all together again.