Exposition:
Well, it’s day 3 of living in the pantry and I’m not having a good time right now. Yesterday, the immigration pantry told me it’s going to be a little while for my documentation papers to come in and they gave me a measly $200 to get by. I am pretty concerned as I don’t have a way to get by at the moment so I am going to need to find something to do.
Point of Attack:
I walked out the hotel and started thinking about what I needed to do.
I remembered what that rice grain Min told me to do, to get a phone so I tried to find out where it was. The signs were unfortunately too hard for me to read so I thought I was pretty done for. Fortunately, I remembered that Min’s stand wasn’t that far away. I walked over to the park and found his cart. He greeted me and I was very thankful to meet him since I wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t even be there. He wrote down the directions on a piece of paper I thanked him and went on my way. He’s such a nice grain and I thought that since his line of work doesn’t take a particular set of skills I thought it would be a good idea to maybe go into the nutrient industry.
With the $200 and directions the pantry and Min gave me I went over to the tech store for a new phone so I have a means of communication and a way at understanding this new world around me.
I couldn’t even get the good ones cause they were too expensive but I thought I had nothing to lose so I went ahead and blew all $200 on the best phone I could get since I knew it would be my primary form of understanding and interacting with this new world so it was worth the investment.
The first thing I did with this new phone was call my relatives on the farm and found out that a couple of my family grains were sick and needed a way out as such, I thought I had some level of responsibility to provide that way out for them since I saw first hand how terrible the world can be.
Rising Action:
More importantly I needed that way of providing fast before they kick me out of that hotel or else I’m screwed. I loaded up a job application app on this phone and scrolled through as many jobs as I could. There were a lot of jobs that I really wanted to get as we didn’t have such well-paid jobs back home but I didn’t have the credentials for any of them. I noticed that almost every single job required some form of culinary degree, something I didn’t have or have a chance of getting. It wasn’t an enjoyable decision, but I decided to go over to the employment can where they give out jobs to people. I had high hopes since there’s no reason to not put people to work but what I encountered appalled me. The management sardines ended up putting all of the newly immigrated rice grains into a long as heck single file line where they do a quick interview to put them into a job. Everything seemed cool at first, so I got in line but after an hour of waiting, they decided to put all of the unemployed native foods in the same line as us but all ahead of us causing everyone to have to go further back than when we started. [2] I looked ahead into the front of the line to the section after the interview booth and I saw a couple of grains crying on the ground. I decided to get out of the line to quickly check up on them to see if I could help them out. As I spoke with them, I realized that the situation for me might be more dire than I thought. They were some grains who were like me who had nothing, no documentation, no skills, except a dream of providing for their folks back home. It turns out that this was their 4th time waiting all day for a job and getting declined. They got declined cause there were no “no experience required” positions open which flabbergasted me. There were no jobs to take? We can do work! I didn’t care what I was that I could do I would take anything, but it didn’t seem like I would have any luck here, so I got out and decided to walk back home. As I walked back it felt extremely hopeless. I couldn’t find work, find help, or find opportunities here, it was really bad. [3] I looked up to my dad my whole life and he always told me one thing to me “my voice is power” I thought it was really inspirational back home but over here I thought to myself “what’s the point of having a voice if there’s no one to understand?” I didn’t have the answer, but it made me start to think if there might be anyone around that could understand me. I thought for a bit and Min came to mind. I had nothing to lose so I walked over to his stand on the way back. I saw his stand and prayed that he would be there. He was. I couldn’t be more relieved. He saw that I was crying a little and comforted me in the stands shop. He took me in and I explained everything that happened today. He thought for a little bit. Moseyed around his shop for a little bit looking for something and came back to me. I was spaced out thinking if there was anything that could happen to save me. Then I looked up and I saw Min writing something down on a paper napkin. He told me to check out the table. I walked over to the table and saw what was written on the paper. I fell to my knees. The napkin only said 2 words and a line at the bottom. “You’re Hired.” I cried tears of joy at Min for letting me be able to work at his stand and he told me that the line at the bottom was a signature to start working. It wasn’t official, there was no paperwork, nothing to verify. It was pure community.
Falling Action:
I sobbed while singing to him and wondered what was next. He told me that I would start my first shift tomorrow if I would like and I couldn’t thank him more for this opportunity that they gave to someone like me. I walked out of his stand and wandered over to the hotel. I checked my phone and found out that it came with an actual notes app where I am writing this right now. I pray tomorrow brings an opportunity for myself and my family to see another day and I hope whoever is reading this has a nice night.
Resolution:
I decided to base this diary log based on an all-too-common story in New York. [1] It is the end game location for so many people in the world as the land of opportunity, but it can become a trap for many. It turns out that this unemployment crisis that effects so many parts of north American society in so many parts effects even those coming as immigrants in a way that these people come here to die. Its extremely tragic that so many come here searching for work and instead of putting them to work we end up not having enough facilities for work where we can end up finding a way not even at sustaining ourselves but just being able to survive it’s disgraceful and I hope that those who read this understand that while yes immigrants do take up jobs from locals its ultimately the job of those on the administrative level to be able to provide enough jobs for those in its country immigrant or not. It’s inhumane to bring people into your country only to not give them a way to thrive and just leave them out to dry again, it’s disgraceful.
- https://www.centernyc.org/reports-briefs/working-but-not-thriving-job-growth-and-poverty-in-nyc-both-above-national-rates-latest-figures-show-latest-figures-show
- https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-state-of-job-quality-in-new-york-city/
- https://www.bls.gov/regions/northeast/news-release/laborunderutilization_newyork.htm
