an update

Probably there's no other way to live, circumstances being what they are. Take a breath and do it. Don't think about it. Day to day, hour to hour.

Three months ago to the day--I haven't been counting, only an old e-mail alerted--my students' small world was all upheaval and panic when what could never happen to one of them did. It seems a long time ago now. My student who fled in an immigration bust fall-out has become a second-hand name, a "How's he doing?" when he calls from Chicago. I'm glad he's fine.

And then, randomly, the story, the trigger. They always start in the middle.

"He's not sure if he'll go back to Mexico."

"What?"

"His brother has tried to pass three times, but he's got caught, and they told him next time he'd go to jail for three years. So he thinks he'll stay down there."

"I guess so." The wife and three kids, by the way, are in Chicago, waiting. Family reunification may still be policy, but it is not easy. It's also not the point, not this time.

What is instead striking is not even how casually this news is relayed, but how completely the girl who's telling the story has slipped back into what for a crisis-filled moment seemed like an untenable life. She's driving because she's old enough, not because she's licensed. She'll work in the summer because her mother says it's time to pitch in. She'll follow the gray rules, stay outside the lines. She'll focus on the iPod she bought with her share of the tax refund and her tech school acceptance--all the trappings of the American high school life she lives--and deal with the rest when it comes. As we now know that it will.

Just ask the grad who has left a vague message on my voicemail. He says only that he wants to talk, discuss a few things. The news says that his former employer has been fined tens of thousands of dollars for hiring certain workers. I hope for no connection, know better. Wait for another call.

Everyone's life is complicated in one way or the other. These are just the stories that I know.